Wins have been hard to come by for the Highland boys’ soccer team.

The struggle continued on Thursday afternoon when the Huskies dropped a Mid Hudson Athletic League contest to unbeaten Mount Academy, 4-1, at Highland High School.

“They’re very, very good,” Highland coach Cody Stecher said. “They’re skilled all around. They play so well as a team. Our guys played as hard as they could, and they gave everything they got. We came up short, but I’m proud of the way they played.”

The Huskies drew first blood, but the Eagles responded quickly, taking a 2-1 lead at halftime.

The Huskies got on the board when Kieran Surprise sent a corner kick into play from the right side, and it was redirected into the net by Preston Ebert, giving Highland a 1-0 lead.

“We were pretty pumped, and we got the first goal,” Stecher said. “We were ahead, and we were trying to keep the same energy. We had a couple of unlucky bounces to get the equalizer, and that happens. Then, it kind of got away from us.”

Ebert’s goal came in the 25th minute, but Bruce Maendel’s goal in the 37th minute tied the game at 1-1. The Eagles took the lead for good about a minute later, when Jake Maendel scored off a free kick.

“Those are the kinds of mistakes where if you make a mistake like that you pay for it,” Stecher said. “Those momentary lapses were the difference today. It was a couple of moments, but for most of that game, it was competitive.

The Eagles got another two quick goals early in the second half. Robert O’Connell scored to give Mount Academy a 3-1 lead, and two minutes after that, Michael Meier’s goal widened their lead to three goals.

It could have been a lot worse without the efforts of Highland goalkeeper Dan Westover, who did his best to keep the Huskies in the game. Westover was in goal in place of Dylan Dutra, who is playing in the field with an arm injury.

“He has been incredible all year long,” Stecher said. “The other thing about him is he’s not supposed to be a goalkeeper. Our starting goalkeeper’s wearing a cast on his wrist and Dan stepped up this year. He really didn’t want to, but he’s one of the hardest working guys all summer. He’s stepped up and played phenomenal all year long.”

The win kept the Eagles unbeaten, but sent the Huskies’ record down to 1-9-0, and a 1-8-0 record in the league. Their only win was a 6-0 win over Webutuck on September 28.

The Huskies have one league game remaining, a home game against Dover. They’ll finish the season on Thursday with a road game against the Rondout Valley Ganders.

“I genuinely think we’re a lot better than what our record says,” Stecher said. “But at the end of the day, we just had those lapses at the wrong times throughout the year. But in terms of development, they’ve always shown up at practice with the right attitude trying to get better every day.”