Since getting off to a strong start to start the season, the Newburgh Free Academy girls’ soccer team has been struggling of late.

They dropped their third straight game on Wednesday, losing 2-1 to the Warwick Wildcats in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association crossover game.

“We played great in short spurts, but we weren’t consistent enough the whole game,” Newburgh coach Dave Doulin said. “I think we defended really well. We just had two lapses, where we just shut off and they capitalized.”

They had a lapse each in the first and second half.

After playing more than 38 minutes of scoreless soccer, Warwick’s Skyler Blanton got a shot past Newburgh goalkeeper Taryn Judson for a 1-0 lead. Blanton took advantage of the Goldbacks again in the 61st minute when a ball bounced off Judson’s hands. Blanton, playing along the right post, took the carom and blasted it just inside the left post.

That seemed to take the air out of the Goldbacks for a few minutes.

“Right before they scored, we had a really good chance and we didn’t put it away,” Doulin said. “That could have changed the game. But, like I said, we made two mistakes in the back and both of them end up in our net.”

The shot the Goldbacks didn’t convert came as a surprise to everyone. Midfielder Julia Leonard served a ball forward to Riley Frederick, who got behind the defense and was about to set up a one-on-one with Warwick goalkeeper Lily Bailey.

However, a Warwick defender ran her down from behind and ended the scoring opportunity.

“I was surprised to see that,” Doulin said.

The Goldbacks got on the board in the 74th minute when Marina Parodo got behind the defense and scored to pull Newburgh back into the game and give them a shot of life.

“We were pushing before that and we had a couple of other chances,” Doulin said. “But that gave us a belief that, ‘it’s on.’”

The Goldbacks had several shots to tie it late, but Frederick had a shot go wide to the right and Parodo had a shot saved by Bailey.

When the final whistle blew, the Goldbacks had their third straight loss and fell to 5-4-0. They started the season winning five of their first six before falling to Pine Bush and Monroe-Woodbury.

They finished the week on Friday with a 7-0 home victory over the Middletown Middies.

“We’ve just got to clean up the little mistakes we made,” Doulin said. “Obviously we played pretty well for the majority of the game. It was little mistakes against good teams come back to hurt us, and we get away with them against teams that aren’t as good.”