By Mike Zummo

Three games into the season, the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks are searching for their first victory.
They’ve been close, haven’t lost them all, but haven’t won any either.

Two days after battling the Kingston Tigers to a tie, the Goldbacks were hit in quick succession on both sides of halftime in a 3-0 loss to the Pine Bush Bushmen in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I girls’ soccer game on Friday at NFA North.

“I really liked the way we battled, especially with all those injuries early,” Newburgh coach Dave Doulin said. “We were changing every three minutes, changing positions, changing girls because of injuries. We held it together really well in the first half, and that goal late and the early one in the second half was really the difference in the game. Other than, I’m not upset with the effort.”

That late first-half goal came off the foot of Pine Bush’s Ava Boffalo. After a scoreless 38 minutes, she tucked a goal just inside the left post, giving her team a 1-0 lead.

Even though the goals were separated by about 15 minutes in real time, they had the effect of back-to-back goals, as Boffalo scored her second, not even three minutes into the second half.

“Those are backbreakers, especially the end of the first,” Doulin said. “We battled hard for 38 minutes, and they pop one in right at the end. If we get to halftime, 0-0, we can catch our breath and feel good about ourselves. But it’s like everybody just naturally drops their head after that.”

The Bushmen tacked on their final goal in the 57th minute on a goal by Katie Cragan.
Jocelyn Velasquez made seven saves for the Goldbacks (0-2-1, 0-1-1 OCIAA-I)

While the Bushmen built their lead, they prevented the Goldbacks from getting any scoring opportunities. Their best came with less than 7 minutes left in the game when Newburgh’s Julia Lopez came up the right side, but her shot banged off the outside goalpost and went out of bounds.

“Julia brings a lot of speed up there and a lot of effort,” Doulin said. “She plays hard and she’s not afraid to run herself into the ground.”
Shea Toback made four saves.

In their third game of the season, it was the Goldbacks’ largest goal differential of the season, and they already have some experience with late goals. It also was their first game that didn’t go into overtime.

They lost to the Cornwall Dragons, 4-3, giving up a goal in the 100th minute. Then on Wednesday, they battled the Kingston Tigers to a 1-1 tie. They’ll play two non-league games before returning to divisional play on the road against the Middletown Middies on Monday.

“The effort was great,” Doulin said. “I can’t complain about the effort. Pine Bush was the better team today. Our effort was good. The final score was ,3-0, but it was really closer than that.”