Game Of The Week: Newburgh vs Monroe-Woodbury [VIDEO]

By Charlie Cornacchio

MIDDLETOWN - It was a rematch - a year in the making - ever since Newburgh suffered a 31-30 loss to Monroe-Woodbury in the Section 9 championship last season.

Saturday night's Section 9 Class AA championship game at Faller Field had most of the 1000+ in attendance, stumped.

The Goldbacks and Crusaders offensives have been stealing the headlines with 30,40,and even 60 point games this season.  But what many missed was how strong both team's defense has been.  With the score tied at 7-7 through four quarters we got to see just how stingy these defenses are.

After playing 4 quarters of sterling defensive football the Goldbacks got to overtime and scored on a play that almost didn't happen..

Anthony Dubose nearly dropped a pitch toss from quarterback Tyriek Washington.  Waqtch the video below and you'll see just how close the pitch came to hitting the ground before Dubose snatched it an inch from the turf. Dubose never broke stride and ran it into the end zone for the score.  After scoring the TD another potential disaster was avoided when the snap for the extra point was bobbled and turned into a broken play two point conversion.   "No that wasn't planned, that was just amazing", recalled Bianco.

And with the score 15-7 Crusaders needed a touchdown AND a two-point conversion, but ran into Goldback defenders on each down of their overtime possession.

"We won it because this team believed," said head coach Bill Bianco.  "Ever since last year's championship game loss, this team has worked hard.  I'm not saying that other teams in the area didn't work hard in the off season but my guys were at it through the winter, spring, and summer"

The reward? NFA gets the championship trophy and a week off before playing the winner of the John Jay-Shenendehowa game in the state quarterfinals in two weeks.