Middletown beats Newburgh Free Academy likely setting up another clash for Section 9 Class AA title

NEWBURGH – The fortunes for Middletown football have changed greatly over the past two months.

Coach Tim Strenfel was not optimistic that the spring season would even be played, with all the concerns from officials about the high-risk nature of playing football in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

“I’m not getting anybody’s hopes up,’’ he told his players, “because every time that I got my hopes up, we sort of got shot down.’’

Football eventually got the go-ahead, and his tune changed.

“I was like, wow, if we get six games in, guys, we will be so blessed,’’ Strenfel said.

The Middies have done one better, likely assuring themselves a seventh game and berth in the Section 9 Class AA “championship’’ game, with a stirring 22-14 victory at Newburgh Free Academy on Friday night.

Among the Class AA hierarchy (all with one division loss), Middletown beat Newburgh, which beat Monroe-Woodbury, which beat Middletown in overtime on March 26. Barring any changes in past tie-breaking procedures, point differential in head-to-head meetings will come into play in a three-way tie, with Newburgh at plus-13, Middletown at plus-5 and Monroe-Woodbury at minus-18 – that would set up another NFA-Middletown clash on April 23 or 24.

PHOTO GALLERY:Newburgh v. Monroe-Woodbury football

“I told these guys, I didn’t think we were going to play a game this year,’’ said Strenfel, whose team plays Class A leader Port Jervis in Friday’s Erie Bell game, “and now, essentially, we have three championship games in a row.’’

Middletown took advantage of four Newburgh turnovers, and scored twice in the fourth quarter to earn the win. Jermaine McCray caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Dalton Howell, just over the fingertips of a Newburgh defender, early in the fourth quarter. And Justin Sandoval booted a 24-yard field goal with 2:45 to play for the 22-14 lead.

Still, Newburgh mounted one more threat in an attempt to tie. NFA quarterback Amarri Tice completed three intermediate passes, quickly moving the Goldbacks to the Middletown 13. He ran 3 yards on a keeper, but dropped the next snap for a loss of 2 yards. Tice scrambled 9 yards to the Middletown 6, setting up a fourth down-and-three call. NFA coach Bill Bianco said Tice had three options on the final play but ended up throwing the ball to an empty spot in the end zone, allowing Middletown to take over and take a knee to kill the clock.