The Newburgh Free Academy football team held on and earned themselves a week off.

The Goldbacks built an early 21-point lead and then held off a comeback attempt by the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders for a 21-14 win on Saturday afternoon at Academy Field, which clinched the Section 9 Class AA regular season championship.

The win sends the Goldbacks directly to the Section 9 Class AA championship game, scheduled for November 12 at noon at Newburgh Free Academy. They will face the winner of this week’s game against the second-seeded Crusaders and the third-seeded Middletown Middies.

Mason Hoover threw for 197 yards and two touchdowns, one to Jashon Thomas, and the second to Deondre Johnson. Tajir Walker carried the ball 18 times for 132 yards.

However, after starting on their own 5-yard line, the Goldbacks capitalized when Monroe-Woodbury’s Eryk Shammgod recovered a fumble, giving the Crusaders the ball on the Newburgh 6-yard line. Several plays later, David Fennessey scored on a 1-yard sneak to cut Newburgh’s lead to 21-7.

Then, the Crusaders recovered another fumble as the Crusaders knocked the ball loose from Deondre Johnson on a screen pass and recovered the fumble on the Newburgh 40-yard line.

That led to Shammgod’s 5-yard touchdown run, cutting Newburgh’s lead to 21-14 with 5:37 remaining in the third quarter.

The Goldbacks fumbled for a third time in the fourth quarter, but this time the Goldbacks’ defense held, forcing the Crusaders to punt.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Goldbacks got on the board when Walker scored his touchdown with 10:45 left in the second quarter.

Then on the next drive, Newburgh’s Thomas caught a pass from Hoover, taking it the rest of the way for a 34-yard touchdown pass, giving Newburgh a 14-0 lead with 8:19 left in the second quarter.

Then with 3:27 left in the half, Hoover found Johnson, along the sidelines. Johnson did the rest from there, outrunning the Crusaders, and giving Newburgh a 21-0 lead with 3:27 left in the half.
Fabien Rhoden led the Goldbacks’ defense with five tackles, one for a loss. Johnson also returned to the defense, making five tackles.