Week 4 Class Rankings: The Season Is Starting to Speak for Itself

Featured photo: Elian (@shotsby.e_)

Presented by Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler

History matters in Section IX football.

Tradition matters. Championships matter. What a program has proven over multiple seasons matters. You don’t erase years of winning because of one bad Friday night.

But history can only carry a team for so long before you have to react to what is happening directly in front of you.

And now we’re entering Week 4.

We’re far enough into the season that the games have to start talking louder than expectations.

That doesn’t mean these rankings are finished. Not even close.

Some teams currently sitting at the bottom could look completely different by October. Some teams wearing the crown today may not have it three weeks from now. And some of the biggest games that will eventually decide these classes haven’t even happened yet.

This is simply where we believe everybody stands right now.

And everybody has a part in the story.

CLASS AA: Middletown has the crown, but this class is much bigger than one team

For now, Middletown remains No. 1.

The Middies are 4-0. They beat Cornwall, shut out Minisink Valley and then beat Port Jervis 28-7 in the Erie Bell Game.

They still have the zero.

That matters.

But this is absolutely not Middletown at No. 1 and everybody else fighting for scraps.

Newburgh is right there.

NFA just delivered perhaps the loudest result of Week 3 with a 31-0 shutout of Cornwall.

Their only loss came by one score against Curtis out of New York City, and anyone familiar with what happened between Middletown and Newburgh last season knows exactly why this conversation is only getting started.

Newburgh dominated Middletown in their regular-season meeting a year ago.

Then the postseason came.

Middletown got another chance and flipped the result when it mattered most.

So what happens this year?

Does Newburgh get another regular-season opportunity and remind everybody what happened the first time around last season?

Does Middletown prove that the playoff win represented a bigger shift?

Could we eventually see another playoff chapter after that?

We don’t know.

And that is what makes this fun.

We’re entering Week 4, not preparing for the state playoffs.

Newburgh could absolutely become the No. 1 team in this section before everything is finished. Middletown could keep winning and make the argument disappear.

Right now, somebody has to wear the crown.

We don’t do ties.

Middletown is undefeated.

The Middies stay No. 1.

Valley Central is quietly making its own case

Lost in the Middletown-Newburgh conversation is a Valley Central team sitting at 3-1.

The Vikings responded to the Lourdes loss by beating FDR 34-7, and they belong in the upper portion of this class until somebody proves otherwise.

Their ceiling is going to be determined by what happens when the AA schedule starts forcing these teams directly into one another.

That is when we’ll learn whether Valley Central is simply having a strong start or whether the Vikings can actually force themselves into the championship conversation.

Kingston is showing something defensively

Kingston is another team we’re not ready to overlook.

The record is 2-2, but what caught our attention was the way the Tigers competed against Lourdes.

Lourdes put 50-plus on Pine Bush, but Kingston held that same offense to 31.

That doesn’t mean Kingston gets credit for a loss.

It means there are signs that the defense is giving this team something to build around.

The question now is whether Kingston can turn improved stretches of football into wins as the AA schedule gets heavier.

Pine Bush is better than the record looks — but eventually it has to become wins

Pine Bush has been competitive enough that we’re not treating the Bushmen like a bottom-of-the-section football team.

They scored 28 against Washingtonville. They have shown offensive ability.

But the losses are accumulating.

At some point, “played them tough” has to become “beat them.”

There are opportunities coming, and Pine Bush needs to capitalize on them if it wants to move up this board.

And then there is Monroe-Woodbury

This is the biggest shock in AA.

Monroe-Woodbury is 0-4.

Just one season ago, the Crusaders were Section IX Class AA champions.

Now they are at the bottom of the class.

That is territory this program simply is not accustomed to occupying.

And there is really nothing left to explain away.

Washingtonville beat them.

Cornwall beat them decisively.

Minisink Valley beat them.

Now Monroe has to decide what it wants the rest of 2026 to say about this team.

Because the schedule does not get easier.

The next stretch runs directly through the programs Monroe traditionally measures itself against.

At some point, reputation stops protecting you.

The Crusaders are going to have to prove to the section whatever it is they want everybody to believe about them.

Maybe this becomes an incredible turnaround story.

Maybe 0-4 becomes something they never recover from.

That part hasn’t been written yet.

But right now, 0-4 has to matter.

CLASS A: Washingtonville takes over — and suddenly this class feels wide open

This was the hardest No. 1 decision of the week.

Washingtonville moves to the top.

That does not erase Cornwall.

It doesn’t erase championships, tradition or everything that program has built.

Cornwall earned the benefit of the doubt.

But the Dragons are 1-3.

Eventually, we have to rank the football happening in 2026 instead of the football we expect might happen later.

Washingtonville is 3-1.

They’re winning.

Would we like the Wizards to be better defensively?

Absolutely.

Giving up 28 points to anybody is not ideal when you are trying to establish yourself as the best team in your classification.

But the Wizards continue finding ways to finish games.

And eventually, winning has to win the argument.

What makes this situation even more interesting is that Washingtonville and Cornwall will not get a regular-season head-to-head matchup.

Washingtonville therefore has a bigger challenge than simply taking over a September ranking.

The Wizards have to stay the course.

They have to keep winning.

And if Cornwall eventually works its way through the other side and both teams reach the championship, maybe Washingtonville gets an opportunity to change history in a game that settles everything.

Until then, we cannot rank a hypothetical.

We rank what has actually happened.

And today, Washingtonville is No. 1.

Friday gives that ranking a direct test at unbeaten Goshen. Cornwall, meanwhile, goes to Minisink Valley for a rematch of the last two Class A title games. Those results will tell us more than another week of arguing over résumés.

Lourdes may be the most dangerous team nobody should overlook

Class A is not Washingtonville versus Cornwall.

Not anymore.

Our Lady of Lourdes is 3-1 and dangerous.

The Warriors responded to their opening loss by stacking wins over Pine Bush, Valley Central and Kingston.

But the bigger concern for everybody else is how Lourdes is built.

They can run the football.

They can be physical up front.

And we just watched Newburgh create enormous problems for Cornwall with some of those same ingredients.

That does not mean Lourdes automatically produces the same result.

It means the style matters.

Lourdes has enough physicality to make this Class A race much more complicated than a two-program conversation.

That is why the Warriors move to No. 2.

Cornwall now gets to do something it rarely has to do: chase

Cornwall falls to No. 3.

That sounds dramatic because we’ve become accustomed to seeing the Dragons at the top.

But dropping them does not mean writing them off.

Actually, this might make Cornwall even more interesting.

If the Dragons are still what we believe they are, there is an entire season available to prove it.

They don’t need us protecting their ranking.

They can go take it back.

Minisink may have found exactly what it needed

Minisink Valley got an important response against Monroe-Woodbury.

After losses to Port Jervis and Middletown, the Warriors needed something positive to stop the season from drifting.

They got it.

Beating Monroe gives Minisink something to build from and keeps them directly in the Class A conversation.

Now comes another test: can that become momentum instead of one isolated result?

Goshen is 4-0 — and we know people are going to ask why they aren’t higher

Fair question.

The Gladiators are undefeated.

They retained the Spirit Trophy against Warwick and continue doing exactly what teams are supposed to do: win the games on the schedule.

What is keeping Goshen from moving higher right now is not disrespect.

It’s the way we’re evaluating the entire résumé.

The offensive production against Kingston and Warwick left us wanting to see another level before jumping them over the teams above.

But there’s an easy solution.

Keep winning.

At 4-0, Goshen controls its ability to make us move them.

Wallkill has earned its jump

Wallkill moves ahead of Warwick and FDR.

The Panthers have handled the opponents they were supposed to handle, and the Valley Central result looks increasingly important when comparing them with teams around this spot.

Wallkill was much more competitive with VC than FDR was.

That matters.

Now Wallkill needs the kind of win that moves them out of the middle of the rankings and into the conversation with the teams above.

Warwick might be 0-4, but nobody has had an easy night against that schedule

We are not pretending 0-4 doesn’t matter.

It does.

But context matters too.

Warwick just went down 12-6 to undefeated Goshen.

They have faced Newburgh, Pine Bush and Goshen during this opening stretch.

So no, the Wildcats are not being rewarded for losing.

But we also aren’t going to treat every 0-4 record as identical.

Warwick has remained competitive enough against legitimate opponents to stay ahead of FDR for now.

Eventually, though, there has to be a win.

FDR has dominated the teams below them — now they need one above them

FDR has shown it can punish struggling teams.

The Presidents handled Poughkeepsie and Monticello.

But Kingston beat them, and Valley Central just beat them 34-7.

That establishes the challenge.

If FDR wants to climb, the Presidents have to beat one of the teams that currently sits above them.

CLASS B: Port Jervis is not in trouble

Let’s make this perfectly clear.

Port Jervis is not a team in trouble.

It has literally been less than two years since this program won a state championship.

The Raiders are not trying to rediscover how to win football games. They are not repairing a broken program.

They are transitioning out of an era that included championship teams, superstar quarterbacks and some of the best football Port Jervis has played.

Eventually, every program has to turn the page.

Port is doing that right now.

And they are still dangerous.

Middletown beat Port Jervis 28-7 in the Erie Bell Game.

Nothing changes about the score.

But Middletown had to earn it.

Port did not show up and surrender because the names on the roster look different from the championship groups.

Middletown had to work.

And every team in Class B is going to have to work too.

Port already has wins over Minisink Valley and Marlboro.

The Raiders know what playoff football looks like. They know what championship preparation looks like. They know what the standard is.

Our question isn’t whether Port Jervis is finished.

Our question is what this version of Port Jervis eventually becomes.

For now, they remain No. 1.

Beacon is 4-0. Now prove how serious this really is.

Beacon has everybody’s attention.

The Bulldogs have beaten O’Neill, Red Hook and Marlboro and still have not lost.

That deserves respect.

But attention and the Class B crown are two different things.

At some point, every emerging contender has to prove it can go through the program sitting on top.

Saugerties had to do that last year.

In the championship game, Saugerties beat Port Jervis 22-21.

That is how quickly a challenger can become real.

Beacon gets its chance now.

Marlboro remains better than its record

Marlboro has already seen Port and Beacon.

The Dukes lost both, but the 12-6 Beacon game showed that they can make life uncomfortable for one of the hottest teams in the section.

Nobody in Class B should look at Marlboro’s record and assume that means an easy Friday.

They still have enough to affect how this class finishes.

Saugerties just reminded everybody that last season wasn’t an accident

The Sawyers answered with a 36-14 win over New Paltz.

And after last year’s run to the Class B final, there is context behind every Saugerties result now.

This is a program that has experienced playing for the championship.

Beacon may be the undefeated team receiving the attention today, but Saugerties is still very much part of this class.

Red Hook needs its next response

The Beacon loss was ugly.

But one game does not have to define Red Hook’s season.

The Raiders have already shown enough to sit above the bottom portion of B.

Now they need to show how they respond when things go badly.

New Paltz and Liberty are running out of time to change the direction

New Paltz took another loss against Saugerties and remains searching for its first win.

Liberty is in the same position.

Nobody gets eliminated from the conversation simply because September was bad, but the runway gets shorter every week.

Both programs need a result that changes the energy around their season.

And they need it soon.

CLASS C: Dover has the crown, but this might be the most volatile class

Dover remains No. 1 after beating Chester 18-13.

It wasn’t easy.

That is part of why we liked the result.

Sometimes you learn more about a team when everything goes wrong and it still figures out how to finish.

Dover got through a game that could have gone either way and stayed unbeaten.

That matters.

Highland took a punch — now we see the response

Highland entered the Burke game unbeaten.

Then Burke handed them a 52-6 loss.

There is no sugarcoating that.

But one terrible night does not erase everything Highland did before it.

The response matters now.

That is why Highland remains high in the class but no longer has the same momentum it carried into Week 3.

O’Neill is still sitting in the middle of this race

O’Neill has enough quality on its résumé to remain ahead of Rondout for now.

But the gap is shrinking.

The Raiders need a result that reminds everybody why we had them high in the first place.

Rondout Valley just forced its way into the conversation

Rondout beating Spackenkill was not a small result.

That win changes the middle of Class C.

Suddenly, Rondout is not just hanging around the rankings.

The Ganders have a head-to-head result they can point to when these positions get debated.

Keep winning, and this becomes a legitimate playoff storyline.

Spackenkill now has to answer

The Rondout loss moves Spackenkill down.

That doesn’t bury them.

It just means the margin for error has changed.

This class has enough parity that one response win can move a team two or three spots.

Spackenkill now gets to show us what comes next.

CLASS D: Burke took the throne on the field

We respect what Burke Catholic has done.

The Eagles don’t spend much time complaining about where somebody ranks them.

They answer on the field.

And when there was still a question about who belonged at No. 1?

Burke beat Highland 52-6.

Message received.

The Eagles are 4-0.

They take the top spot.

Chester isn’t going anywhere

Chester drops to No. 2 after losing 18-13 to Dover.

But this is not some massive collapse.

They lost a one-score game to the team we currently have No. 1 in Class C.

Burke has simply earned the right to move ahead.

Now Chester gets to chase.

And with only two teams sitting on the Class D board, there is nowhere to hide.

If these teams eventually meet with the championship on the line, everything gets settled there anyway.

8-MAN: Pawling has the crown, but this race is getting crowded

Pawling remains No. 1.

The Tigers have earned that position, but there are challengers everywhere.

Millbrook/Webutuck is unbeaten and sitting directly behind them. That alone makes the top of the class worth watching every week.

Sullivan West made its biggest statement yet by beating Eldred 34-6, which pushes the Bulldogs up the board.

Tri-Valley remains dangerous and owns the head-to-head advantage that matters when we compare the teams around them.

Eldred takes a hit because of the Sullivan West loss, but earlier results still matter. One bad Friday does not completely wipe away what happened before it.

Onteora may have the most explosive offense among the teams in this portion of the rankings. The next step is turning that ability into the signature win that forces us to move them higher.

Ellenville has shown improvement and owns enough positive results to remain in the conversation, but previous head-to-head results still create a ceiling right now.

Pine Plains/Rhinebeck has had a respectable start but has the same issue: when teams are close, head-to-head results have to matter.

Rockland remains in the lower portion of the board and needs a result that changes the conversation.

And Fallsburg remains at the bottom, still searching for the breakthrough that gives this season a different direction.

The important thing?

There is enough football left for all of them.

It’s Week 4 — not the final chapter

That is the entire point of these rankings.

They are not predictions for November.

They are not lifetime achievement awards.

They are a snapshot of what everybody has earned right now.

Middletown has the crown.

Newburgh is coming.

Valley Central has an opportunity.

Kingston is showing signs.

Pine Bush has to turn competitiveness into wins.

Monroe-Woodbury has to find out what kind of response one of Section IX’s most established programs has when it suddenly finds itself at 0-4.

Washingtonville has taken No. 1.

Lourdes is dangerous.

Cornwall gets to chase.

Minisink is trying to build momentum.

Goshen is 4-0 and knocking on the door.

Wallkill is moving.

Warwick is fighting.

FDR needs a statement.

Port Jervis remains Port Jervis.

Beacon wants the crown.

Saugerties remembers what last November felt like.

Dover is unbeaten.

Burke took its spot.

And throughout every class, teams are still deciding what their 2026 season is going to become.

History matters.

It always will.

But eventually, the current season has to speak for itself.

And heading into Week 4, 2026 is finally starting to talk.

The KOT845 Week 4 Class-by-Class Rankings are presented by Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler, Official Community Partner of KOT845.