The Pine Bush football team entered the 2023 season short on experience.

Outside of their three captains – Emanuel Hannon, Jake Slovitsky and Edward Morley, Jr. – none of the Bushmen have had much varsity experience.

They have, however, been tested against our Lady of Lourdes and Cornwall. Their most recent was at Newburgh Free Academy, where the Bushmen suffered a 56-20 defeat in the Section 9 Class AA opener for both teams on Thursday night.

“It’s coming,” Pine Bush coach Rich Ormsby said. “We’re very young and very inexperienced. It’s Our Lady of Lourdes, Cornwall and then Newburgh, so we were thrown right into the fire. The kids are up for the challenge.

They’re not backing down. They’re just new. We don’t have a lot of seniors that are experienced players. The kids have great attitudes. That’s all you can ask for. They show up every day and they work hard.”

The Bushmen fell behind early as the Goldbacks got on the board with a 3-yard touchdown run by Bruce Montgomery, who also gave the Goldbacks a 21-0 lead with an interception return for a touchdown.

Between those two scores, Newburgh’s Tajir Walker scored on a 9-yard touchdown run. He also opened up a 28-0 lead with a 26-yard touchdown run.

“Newburgh is big, strong, fast and very experienced,” Ormsby said.

The Bushmen’s offense scored only once, when Triston Santos hit Logan Hawley for a 16-yard touchdown pass, giving the Bushmen something positive to take into the locker room at halftime.

“They have a good outlook on it,” Ormsby said. “The kids want to play the best. They want to see where they stand. Football is a tough game, and we had a lot of big hits tonight.”

The Goldbacks picked right up where they left off to start the third quarter when Walker scored on the first play from scrimmage from 48 yards out to give Newburgh a 35-6 lead.

It was the Bushmen’s defense that answered, as Jacob Brown recovered a fumble around the Pine Bush 33 and returned that for a touchdown, dragging several Newburgh players into the end zone.

“He’s also very new,” Ormsby said. “He started last year, but he didn’t even finish his JV season due to injury that was very unexpected, but he’s a beast.”

Walker scored his fourth touchdown, and then Xavier Sill scored to give Newburgh a 49-13 lead to end the third quarter. Montgomery opened the fourth quarter with a 35-yard run to give Newburgh a 56-13 lead.

Xavier Poole scored on a 5-yard run with 1:33 to go in the game.

“We learned this is a team game and everybody has to do their assignment and one mistake can cost the whole play, it could cost the series and cost you the game. It starts with practice, and you can’t be perfect, but you’ve got to try to be.”

Cornwall 40, Wallkill 0
The Cornwall Dragons outgained the Wallkill football team 393-155 on Friday in Cornwall.

Tyler Vanderpool got the Dragons on the board with a 70-yard touchdown run. He also scored on a 72-yard touchdown catch. The Dragons finished off the Panthers with 27 points in the second half.

He finished the game with three touchdowns.

Michael Cullen had 21 carries for 29 yards for the Panthers (2-2) and eight of 25 passes for 58 yards and ran for 68 yards.

Monroe-Woodbury 41, Valley Central 6
The Valley Central Vikings opened their Section 9 Class AA schedule with a loss to the Crusaders. They will face Newburgh on Thursday.