It’s been a difficult start to the season for the Pine Bush boys’ lacrosse team.

Not just in the scorebook.

The Bushmen, while battling the elements, which have made it difficult to get on the field regularly, they also lost their first four games of the season.
They finally got in the win column on Thursday afternoon with an 18-7 win over the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks at Pine Bush Elementary School.

“We just had a couple of tough games,” Pine Bush’s Evan Jaloszynski said. “Now we’re just ready to get after it and keep winning.”

Jaloszynski put the Bushmen on his back and scored as many goals as the Goldbacks did. He led the Bushmen in scoring with seven goals.

One of those was exceptionally painful as he took a shot from Newburgh goalkeeper Anthony Vasquez that knocked him to the ground.

“I did not see the goalie on that,” Jaloszynski said. “I’m not going to lie.”

Despite that, his shot went in.

“He learned the goalie is coming out on him,” Pine Bush coach Mark Brennan said. “He’s taking a shot and turning; he’s getting a good shot. He put himself in the right position. But that’s the Evan Jaloszynski we know. He’s good. He works hard. He moves well off the ball, so he’s having a good season.”

The Bushmen, as a whole, have been a work-in-progress as they navigated through the early season, which was interrupted by cold, wet and rainy weather, which altered practice and caused cancellations.

“We’re still struggling on trying to follow the offense and that kind of thing,” Brennan said. “But their attitudes are good and we’re just trying to work on it every day.”

The Bushmen had a big first quarter, taking a 7-1 lead on the Goldbacks. However, the Goldbacks won the second quarter.

After the Bushmen made it 8-1, the Goldbacks scored three straight goals to cut Pine Bush’s lead to 8-4.

But they wouldn’t get much closer to that as the Bushmen outscored the Goldbacks, 10-1, in the second half.

“Ball movement got a lot better,” Brennan said. “We’re starting to figure out offensively what we want to do, and we’ll try to go that way. Our defense did a better job of communicating today. We’re not perfect and we’re a long way to go with that.”

In addition to Jaloszysnki’s seven goals, Danny DeGroodt added four goals and two assists. Alec Gorman had two goals and one assist. Joseph Darrell had a goal, and three assists and Dominick Masi had a goal and two assists. Trevor Schmidt had a goal and an assist. Craig VanderKuoy had an assist.

Dominick Ciarelli and Tyler Ostrom combined for 12 saves.

“We have to – on offense – all be on the same page and know exactly what we want to do, how we want to move off the ball and how we want to move the formation,” Brennan said.

The Bushmen finished the week with a 14-7 loss at Brewster.

“I think we’re good, but we still have room to excel and get better,” Jaloszynski said.