The Pine Bush girls’ soccer team played even with the Kingston Tigers but gave up a late goal in each half, dropping a 2-0 Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association crossover game on Friday at Dietz Memorial Stadium.

“This is the best we’ve played in a while,” Pine Bush coach Dan Conley said. “The last time we saw them it was 6-1. We had scored the first one, and they started scoring and scoring and scoring and we got down on ourselves.”

Even though Kingston had the best of the opportunities, the Bushmen (2-7-1) played even with them for nearly 38 minutes. However, Kingston’s Arianna Burns got behind the Pine Bush defense and blasted a shot to the right of Pine Bush goalkeeper KayLeigh McBath, for a 1-0 lead.
McBath made 12 saves.

Burns scored Kingston’s second goal with about 3 minutes left in the game.

Delisianna Naccarato and Sydney Flood each assisted.

“This time, we played great,” Conley said. “A letdown defensively with two minutes to go before the half and they get one in. And then after that, we are trying to play to get the equalizer and they break through and capitalize, which a good striker is going to do.”

Pine Bush had limited opportunities to score and Kingston goalkeeper Erin Creeden – playing for the injured Kyla Burns – only needed to make three saves.

The Tigers (5-5-0) were missing three other key players as well, Alyssa Bigelow, Alyssa Davidson and Yessika Navarrate.

Pine Bush was scheduled to visit Highland on Tuesday before returning to OCIAA play on Thursday against Newburgh Free Academy.

“We’ve played a lot better,” Conley said. “Their goalie’s out. They had some injuries, which may or may not factor in. We played better than we did the first time around. That’s the bottom line. It’s not the result we want, but a step in the right direction.”