The Pine Bush football team believed from Day 1 it was good enough to compete for a Section 9 Class AA championship.
On Saturday night, the Bushmen punched their ticket to the title game with a 35-13 win over the Washingtonville Wizards at Faller Field in Middletown in the sectional semifinals.

“It feels good because no one expected us to be here,” said quarterback Kenny Holland, who led an offense with 11 new starters. “We had a lot of new starters this year. They thought it was going to be a rebuilding year for us and we came out from Day 1 firing on all gears.”

With a new offensive unit and half of the defense comprised of new starters, the Bushmen planted the seeds of this year’s success during the offseason.

“This is a good group of kids,” Pine Bush coach Jim Wright said. “We work really hard. We had a lot in the weight room. They put in all the offseason time. I knew it was a good group. There wasn’t any individuality. It was all, team, team, team.”

And even if the outside world believed the Bushmen were to rebuilding, they didn’t feel it inside the locker room.

“We’re just changing all the doubters,” linebacker Mason Bowen said. “I never doubted my team. I knew we could do this, but it feels really good.”

It was the defense that helped fuel this win for the Bushmen, who even though Washingtonville held the ball half of the first quarter to open the game, a defensive stop, gave the Bushmen the ball.

“That’s the fuel to our defense and our offense,” Bowen said.

“The big stops and it hurts other teams. It stops momentum and it changes the game, and how you play.”

The Bushmen (7-2) got on the board with Khristian Walker’s 7-yard touchdown run.

“Hat’s off to Washingtonville,” Wright said. “They came out with some unconventional D looks that we haven’t seen before, which was smart on their part. Once we got a fix on it, we were good.”

The Wizards answered back with a 29-yard by TJ Snyder. However, the Bushmen’s defense again held up, stopping Washingtonville quarterback Sean Allen short of the goal line to stuff the two-point conversion, giving the Bushmen a 7-6 lead.

“I knew our defense was going to come out and hold every single time, and we did,” Bowen said.

The second-seeded Bushmen never trailed. A 1-yard run by Gunnar Meland gave them a 14-6 halftime lead. Then they added a 22-yard touchdown run by Chauncey Smith and a 34-yard run by Holland gave the Bushmen a 28-6 lead after three quarters.

Meland added a fourth-quarter touchdown. Washingtonville’s Luke Pecovic added a 3-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter.

“We played like a team,” Wright said. “I think this was one of the better nights. I don’t think we had any turnovers. We had great defense and great offense and really good special teams. I’m really happy.”

The second-seeded Bushmen will face the fourth-seeded Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders, who defeated the top-seeded Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks in the other semifinal, on Saturday afternoon at Faller Field.

“This the biggest goal we have right now,” Bowen said. “This is what we’re focused on. This championship game is going to be the biggest game of our lives and we’re here now. We’re prepared.”