For weeks, everything surrounding Section IX football was projection.
Returning starters. Graduation losses. Scrimmages. Preseason rankings. Expectations.
Week 0 finally gave us something better:
Football.
Section IX finished 7-8 in 15 games against out-of-section opponents, but the overall record doesn’t come close to telling the entire story of opening weekend.
Washingtonville erased a nine-point second-half deficit against the team that eliminated it last November. Middletown opened with a 32-point shutout. Spackenkill came back from 20 points down. Minisink Valley found a way to win on the road. Cornwall got an immediate test against one of the state’s stronger programs. O’Neill opened a new coaching era by allowing zero points.
Some preseason beliefs got stronger.
Some now deserve another look.
And several Week 1 games suddenly mean more than they did seven days ago.
This is The Morning After — what happened, what stood out and what Week 0 told us about Section IX football.
Washingtonville supplied the result that changed the conversation most
Washingtonville 34, Our Lady of Lourdes 16.
There was already history behind this matchup.
Lourdes ended Washingtonville’s 2025 season in the playoffs, and midway through Thursday night’s opener, Washingtonville was once again chasing the Warriors.
Lourdes led 8-7 at halftime and stretched the advantage to 16-7 in the third quarter.
Washingtonville’s response?
Twenty-seven unanswered points.
Instead of another Lourdes victory, Washingtonville turned a nine-point deficit into an 18-point win.
And there was substance behind the comeback.
Christian Justafort carried 16 times for 136 yards and a touchdown. Bryce Tesseyman produced 89 receiving yards and two touchdowns while also intercepting two passes defensively. Shane Allums finished with 11 tackles, three tackles for loss and a sack, and the Wizards registered four sacks as a team.
That’s why Washingtonville comes out of Week 0 as one of the biggest movers in the Section IX conversation.
It wasn’t merely the final score.
The Wizards showed they could fall behind, adjust and take control of a football game.
Now comes another major opportunity.
Washingtonville at Monroe-Woodbury.
The defending Class AA champions are coming off their own Week 0 loss, making this one of the more intriguing games on the Week 1 schedule.
Middletown’s defense made sure the opener was never in doubt
Middletown 32, Arlington 0.
There are plenty of ways to start a season well.
Holding your opponent to 90 total yards is near the top of the list.
Middletown’s defense didn’t allow Arlington to score, intercepted two passes and recorded three sacks. Kervens Paraisy and Alex Llano combined for those three sacks with 1.5 apiece.
The offense gave the defense plenty of support.
Ryheem Tinsley Jr. finished with 104 yards on 11 touches and two touchdowns, providing one of the Middies’ biggest offensive performances of the night.
By the end of the third quarter, Middletown had built a 26-0 lead before finishing off the 32-0 shutout.
For a team coming off a trip to the Section IX Class AA championship game and an at-large state playoff appearance, that’s about as clean of an opening performance as Middletown could have wanted.
But the real intrigue starts now.
The Middies go from Arlington to:
Cornwall.
Then:
Minisink Valley.
Two road games against two programs that have been near the center of the Section IX championship picture.
That’s why Middletown’s Week 0 performance matters.
The Middies aren’t entering that stretch trying to figure out whether they’re ready.
They’re entering it 1-0 after winning 32-0 and allowing 90 yards.
Now we find out how that travels.
Cornwall’s loss creates one of Week 1’s biggest response games
Rye 39, Cornwall 21.
Cornwall entered the year with championship expectations.
One loss to Rye doesn’t erase them.
But there are things to correct.
Rye quarterback Charlie Brady ran for five touchdowns in his first start at quarterback, repeatedly hurting Cornwall with his legs.
That’s an important part of evaluating the final.
Cornwall wasn’t simply beaten by 18 points. The Dragons ran into a quarterback performance that controlled the game.
Now the response becomes more interesting than the loss.
Cornwall gets Middletown Thursday night.
One team just gave up 39.
The other just gave up zero.
That doesn’t mean the Week 0 results automatically tell us who wins Week 1.
It means Thursday gives us an excellent opportunity to find out how meaningful those Week 0 results really were.
Spackenkill was 24 minutes away from an ugly opener — then completely flipped the game
New Paltz led Spackenkill 20-0 at halftime.
Spackenkill won 29-20.
That’s one of the stories of the weekend by itself.
Then look at what quarterback Jalon Morgan did.
Morgan completed 19 of 27 passes for 200 yards and rushed for another 125 yards and three touchdowns.
That’s 325 yards of offense from the quarterback in a game his team once trailed by three scores.
Marcos Fermin added Spackenkill’s other rushing touchdown.
The other side of the result shouldn’t be ignored, either.
New Paltz showed enough explosiveness to build a 20-point advantage, including a 78-yard run from Nico Bloom.
Now comes the real challenge for both programs.
Spackenkill has to prove that second half wasn’t just one hot stretch.
New Paltz has to make sure one bad half doesn’t become two bad weeks.
That’s valuable Week 0 information for both teams.
O’Neill opened a new era about as well as possible
This one deserves more attention.
O’Neill 40, Haldane 0.
Adam DiBenedetto entered 2026 in his first season as O’Neill’s head coach.
His first victory?
A 40-point shutout over a Section I opponent.
That’s a strong first night in charge.
Robert Murphy provided much of the offensive damage, rushing for 184 yards and scoring three times on the ground.
Two of those touchdowns came from 52 and 29 yards out, giving O’Neill the explosive element that had been missing too often during the program’s recent downturn.
The Raiders also got touchdown passes to David Prosperie and Jake Bione.
By the end of the third quarter, it was already 34-0.
Remember the larger context here.
O’Neill went from being one of Section IX’s dominant programs — including a 2022 state championship — to a winless season in 2024 before showing signs of recovery last fall.
Now there is a new head coach.
And his first game ended:
40-0.
That doesn’t mean O’Neill is suddenly back to its championship peak.
It does mean the DiBenedetto era couldn’t have started much better.
Next comes Beacon, another 1-0 team.
That game just became considerably more interesting.
Minisink Valley’s roster changed. The result didn’t.
There were legitimate questions around Minisink Valley entering 2026.
A championship team graduated plenty of important players.
That creates uncertainty.
What didn’t change in Week 0 was the Warriors’ ability to finish a game.
Minisink Valley 18, Mahopac 15.
On the road.
Three-point game.
Find a way to win.
That’s valuable for a team breaking in a new version of itself.
Minisink has now won five consecutive road games dating back to last season.
And we’re going to learn about this team quickly.
Next:
Port Jervis.
Then:
Middletown.
By the end of that stretch, we’ll have a much better idea whether Minisink simply remains good or is again capable of being one of Section IX’s very best.
Class AA already has more questions than it did in August
This is exactly what Week 0 was supposed to do.
Middletown opened 32-0.
Kingston beat Mount Vernon 31-10.
Valley Central escaped Yorktown 21-14 in overtime.
Newburgh lost 35-28 to Curtis.
Monroe-Woodbury fell 36-20 to JFK Campus.
Five teams.
Five very different opening nights.
Kingston deserves credit for handling its business.
The Tigers led Mount Vernon 16-0 at halftime and eventually finished off a three-touchdown win.
Now Kingston gets Goshen.
Valley Central might be the most overlooked team in this group after entering the preseason with considerably less attention and immediately beating Yorktown in overtime.
Then there is Monroe-Woodbury.
The Crusaders lost their opener, but Ethan Maldonado still produced 175 rushing yards, added 88 yards passing and accounted for all three Monroe-Woodbury touchdowns — two rushing and one passing.
That’s an important detail.
The defending champions lost.
Their quarterback also showed he remains one of the most dangerous individual weapons in the section.
And now Washingtonville comes to town.
Newburgh, meanwhile, has to respond immediately after losing a one-score game to Curtis.
Warwick is next.
It’s September 6.
Nobody should be declaring an AA champion.
What we can say is this:
Middletown gave us the strongest Week 0 result of the group.
Now everybody gets another data point.
Some of the weekend’s strongest performances came outside AA and A
Week 0 shouldn’t be reduced to the largest schools.
Burke Catholic
Burke Catholic 55, Monticello 0.
Lucas Rodriguez accounted for five touchdowns — three rushing and two passing.
Burke also produced points on an interception return and a blocked-punt return.
When your offense, defense and special teams are all scoring, 55-0 starts making sense.
Red Hook
Red Hook 14, Rondout Valley 12.
This was a very different kind of victory.
Rondout Valley moved the football on the ground, rushing for 256 yards on 47 attempts.
Red Hook still found a way to win.
Mike DeLango scored on a kickoff return and later added a rushing touchdown while also producing 15 tacklesdefensively.
And when Rondout drove inside the Red Hook 5-yard line late in the fourth quarter, Red Hook made the fourth-down stop it needed.
That’s not domination.
That’s survival.
Both count.
Highland
Highland 7, Wallkill 6.
A.J. Nugent scored Highland’s touchdown.
Sophie Valentino converted the extra point.
Wallkill scored in the fourth quarter but couldn’t match the conversion.
One kick.
One point.
One win.
There might not be a better example from Week 0 of how thin the margin between 1-0 and 0-1 can be.
Beacon
Beacon 27, Ketcham 14.
Jamir Spence didn’t wait long to make his presence felt.
He returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and later added another score on the ground.
JahReal Whitted added a 50-yard touchdown reception.
Now Beacon heads to O’Neill for a matchup between two teams that both made strong first impressions.
Week 0 also reminded us that winning ugly still counts
Not every positive Week 0 result needed fireworks.
Goshen beat John Jay-Cross River 28-27.
The Gladiators’ defense produced major momentum plays, including three sacks and a forced fumble from Keller Sutherland, a defensive touchdown by Sean Pugliese and two interceptions.
One point isn’t comfortable.
It’s still 1-0.
Red Hook won by two.
Highland won by one.
Minisink won by three.
Valley Central needed overtime.
Week 0 wasn’t just about which teams were capable of blowing somebody out.
It also showed us which teams could survive close games immediately.
That becomes important later.
What does Section IX’s 7-8 record really mean?
This is where the overall number needs context.
Against Section I, Section IX went:
7-3.
Against PSAL opponents:
0-3.
Against Section IV:
0-2.
Overall:
7-8.
That tells a much clearer story.
Section IX had a very good opening weekend against its closest neighboring section.
The struggles came elsewhere.
Curtis beat Newburgh.
JFK Campus beat Monroe-Woodbury.
Wagner beat Warwick.
Waverly beat Port Jervis.
Walton-Downsville beat Liberty.
So describing the weekend simply as “Section IX went 7-8” leaves too much information on the table.
Against Section I?
Section IX won 70% of its games.
Against everybody else?
0-5.
That’s one of the most useful numbers to carry forward from Week 0.
The early Week 0 stock report
📈 Washingtonville
Down 16-7.
Won 34-16.
Few teams did more to improve their position in one night.
📈 Middletown
32 points scored.
90 yards allowed.
Two interceptions.
Three sacks.
Zero points allowed.
Now comes Cornwall.
📈 O’Neill
A new head coach’s first win comes 40-0 against Section I.
That’s worth noticing.
📈 Spackenkill
Twenty points down.
Twenty-nine unanswered.
A quarterback responsible for 325 yards.
📈 Minisink Valley
The names changed.
The Warriors still opened with a road win.
📈 Beacon
Explosive plays immediately, including an opening-kickoff touchdown.
➡️ Kingston
31-10 is a quality opening win.
Now let’s see it against Goshen before making larger declarations.
➡️ Newburgh
A seven-point loss to Curtis isn’t enough to dramatically change the evaluation.
The response against Warwick matters more.
❓ Cornwall
Still one of Section IX’s most talented teams.
Now Thursday becomes fascinating.
❓ Monroe-Woodbury
The defending champion lost, but its quarterback still produced at a high level.
Washingtonville is an immediate opportunity to respond.
Week 1 has some weight to it now
This is why Week 0 mattered.
A week ago these were simply games on a schedule.
Now they have stories attached to them.
Middletown at Cornwall
32-0 vs. 21-39.
One team wants to prove Week 0 was the start of something.
The other wants to prove Week 0 didn’t change anything.
Washingtonville at Monroe-Woodbury
Washingtonville is coming off perhaps the most impressive comeback in Section IX.
Monroe-Woodbury is the defending AA champion coming off a loss.
There’s pressure on both sides.
Minisink Valley at Port Jervis
Minisink found a way to win.
Port showed it could hang with Waverly before the game got away late.
Now they see each other.
Kingston at Goshen
Two 1-0 teams.
Kingston won comfortably.
Goshen survived by one.
Which result told us more?
Newburgh at Warwick
Both entered Week 0 with expectations.
Both are 0-1.
One will be 0-2.
That gives a September game considerably more urgency.
Beacon at O’Neill
Beacon scored 27.
O’Neill scored 40 and allowed zero.
Adam DiBenedetto’s second game as O’Neill’s head coach comes against a team that also impressed in Week 0.
Don’t overlook this one.
A week ago, we were ranking teams based largely on what they had coming back.
Today we’re beginning to rank them based on what they’ve actually done.
It’s still an extremely small sample.
That matters.
Nobody won a championship this weekend.
Nobody lost one either.
But Week 0 did its job.
It gave us our first clues.
Week 1 gets to tell us which ones were real.
THE MORNING AFTER
A weekly KOT845 look beyond the final score — what happened, what changed and what it means for Section IX football.
