The Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks were down seven starters and the game that resulted wasn’t pretty.

But it still goes down as a “win” in the books.

The Goldbacks scored 15 unanswered points in the second half, erasing a six-point deficit and pulled out a 21-12 win over the Kingston Tigers on Friday in a Class AA football game at Academy Field in Newburgh.

“It was an ugly one, but it’s good to get back on track,” Newburgh quarterback Jaiseon Barnwell said. “After a tough loss like that (against Middletown), I can speak for myself, but I didn’t take the loss to well. Just to come out here tonight and bounce back – even though it wasn’t the way we wanted to, it still moves mountains.”

The win clinched a playoff berth for the Goldbacks with one conference game remaining. It also eliminated the Tigers from the playoff picture.

“Ultimately the playoffs are what matters,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said. “That’s what I’ve been instilling in our guys. We want to win every game in the regular season, but the playoffs are what matters.”

The Goldbacks were shorthanded after the previous week’s 33-22 loss to the Middletown Middies which means the Goldbacks can’t earn higher than the No. 2 seed in the Section 9 Class AA playoffs.

However, they seemed to miss their seven starters as they struggled early and fell behind 12-6 at halftime.

However, the defense bailed the Goldbacks out at the end of the first half. The Tigers were marching toward the end zone, looking for their third score of the day, but Justin Hines intercepted Kingston quarterback Cole Ferraro in the end zone, preventing them from going up by two scores.

“It’s always the next man up mentality,” Barnwell said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who can fill in for guys in spots. Even though the guys who start in our spots are great players and we would love to have them, if everything else fails, we’ve got to have guys who are able to step up and get the job done.”

The job started getting done in the second half. After sputtering for most of the first half, the Goldbacks scored on their opening drive when Zaire Jacklyn broke loose for a 28-yard touchdown run with 9:15 left in the fourth quarter.

After a Kingston penalty gave the Goldbacks another attempt at the extra point, Jacklyn ran the ball into the end zone, giving the Goldbacks a 14-12 lead.

Jacklyn, along with Denvyr Herring filled in for the injured Justin Lassic in the backfield.

“They did pretty good,” Bianco said. “There are things they’ve got to work on.

Obviously, ball security a little bit, but they also made some plays, too. Hopefully, they’ve got a little experience, which help us more as we get rolling on, and hopefully we get everybody back, so our team is our team.”

Barnwell scored his second rushing touchdown of the game when he scored from four yards out with 10:28 left in the game. His first touchdown came in the first quarter, on a 12-yard run.

“It was there and they really weren’t adjusting to stop it,” Barnwell said. “I don’t really shy away from contact either, so I wasn’t too worried about that.”

The Tigers tied the game in the first quarter on a 1-yard run by Jayden Beniquez and took a 12-6 lead on a Ferraro’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Cruz Geuss in the second quarter.

The Goldbacks will finish the regular season on Friday when they visit the Valley Central Vikings. The Goldbacks will clinch second place with a victory.

“It’s like I keep saying, we’ve just got to improve each week,” Bianco said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board.”