It’s been another difficult start for the Newburgh Free Academy girls’ lacrosse team.

The Goldbacks opened their season on April 9 with a 17-2 loss to the Highland Huskies at Highland Middle School.

The Goldbacks didn’t have an answer for Highland’s Leah Klotz, who scored six goals. Caitlin Becker had one goal and had eight draw controls, including the 100th of her career.

Highland’s Logan VanZandt had three goals and Kelcey Whalen and Quinn Ahrenholz had two goals each.

The Huskies took control of the game immediately when they put their first goal on the board just 51 seconds into the game for a 1-0 lead. However, the Goldbacks tied things up about two minutes later.

Klotz followed by coming around the back of the goal to give the Huskies the lead for good with 7:45 left in the first quarter.

Then with 5:30 left in the first quarter Danica Valente scored what turned out to be the game-deciding goal after taking a pass from behind the cage, giving the Huskies a 3-1 lead.

About a minute later, Logan VanZandt scored her first goal of the game off a Newburgh penalty to give the Huskies a 4-1 lead. Becker followed with her lone goal of the game with 3:17 remaining.

A yellow-card penalty against Newburgh’s Emily Leonard, gave the Huskies a one-player advantage, leading to VanZandt’s second goal and a 6-1 Highland goal after the first quarter.

The Huskies added two more goals to start the second quarter before Newburgh’s Vivian Gage scored a goal with 5:45 remaining in the second quarter.

The Newburgh defense held the Huskies off the board from there, and went into halftime, trailing by six.

However, Klotz caught fire in the second half with five more goals in the third quarter as the Huskies put the game away.

The Goldbacks finished the week with an 18-2 road loss to the Kingston Tigers.