The Newburgh Free Academy girls’ soccer team had won two in a row and played four good games to start the season.

But that didn’t matter to the Pine Bush Bushmen, who scored three goals in the first half and four more in the second, as they handed the Goldbacks a 7-1 loss on Thursday afternoon at Pine Bush Elementary School.

“We’re not going to overreact to the final score,” Newburgh coach Dave Doulin said. “We’re just going to base it on how we played, and I don’t think we played as badly as the final score shows. We just dropped after the third goal.”

The Bushmen struck fast, getting a goal from senior captain Morgan Tubbs in the fourth minute. They got their second in the 17th minute, on a score by Kathryn Cragan.

Cragan and Tubbs scored two each for the Bushmen.

Even though the Bushmen struck first, the Goldbacks had the first opportunity in the third minute. However, Marina Parodo’s shot sailed high over the goal.

“I liked the way we played to start the game,” Doulin said. “We created a couple of chances when it was 0-0. We could have been up. The first half, even though the score was 3-1, it was kind of an even game. It was our fifth game and our first game that wasn’t perfect.”

The Goldbacks got their only goal on a corner kick from the right by Parodo. She sent her kick curving into the goal, and it bounced off the hands of Pine Bush goalkeeper Shea Toback, and just over the goal line.

“She’s been trying to do that all year,” Doulin said.
Overall, the Bushmen’s attack was balanced after Cragan and Tubbs. Deirdre Meberg, Audra Meberg and Ava Boffalo added one each for Pine Bush.

Toback made seven saves in the first half, and Grace Druke added three in the second.

It was the Bushmen’s third goal that set the Goldbacks on their heels when Audra Meberg took the ball up the left post and crossed a pass to Cragan, who finished the job for a 3-1 halftime lead.

Tubbs scored her second goal just eight minutes into the second half, leading a four-goal effort in the second half.

“I thought we came out to a pretty good start in the second half, but that first goal after halftime just took the wind out of our sails,” Doulin said.

Taryn Judson made 10 saves for the Goldbacks.

The Goldbacks had six days to recover from the loss as they didn’t take the field again until Wednesday when they hosted the Beacon Bulldogs. They’ll finish this week at home against the Middletown Middies.

“We just need to stay positive when things aren’t going right,” Doulin said. “We got a lot of bad breaks, but we just have to stay positive through the breaks.”