Four games into the season, things are starting to level out for the Pine Bush Bushmen.

They lost their first game, tied their second, before getting their first win. Then, they won their league opener with a 3-0 win over the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks in their Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I opener on Friday at NFA North in Newburgh.

“It’s nice (to win our first league game),” said Ava Boffalo, who led the Bushmen with two goals. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing.”

They didn’t do much in the game’s first 38 minutes, but Boffalo ended that with 2:06 left to go in the first half, tucking a goal just inside the left post, giving her team a 1-0 lead.
“We just had to calm down because in the first half, we were very crazy,” Boffalo said. “We had to find feet and connect.”

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.

“That made us more confident,” Boffalo said. “We just knew that we can keep scoring and it would just be easier for us to keep it going.”
The Bushmen tacked on their final goal in the 57th minute on a goal by Katie Cragan.

“I thought we came out much better in the second half,” Pine Bush coach Dan Conley said. “We controlled a lot of possessions in the first half. We just weren’t connecting in the final third to get any sort of quality scoring opportunities. We got the one real late and we got some more chances to score.”

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.

Shea Toback made four saves.
“We’re progressing,” Conley said. “It’s early in the season, although we’re 25 percent of the way through, it’s only the end of Week 1 in a lot of ways. We’re still learning. We had kids coming up who are just getting their first varsity touches, seeing how quicker the game is from the JV. But we’re moving in the right direction.”

The Bushmen have now won two straight since opening the season with a 3-1 loss to the Warwick Wildcats on Sept. 5 and then battling the Wallkill Panthers to a 0-0 tie with the Wallkill Panthers.
They notched their first win of the season when they beat the Washingtonville Wizards, 3-1, on Wednesday. Their first three games were at home.

After they host the Middletown Middies on Tuesday, they will play five straight road games before returning home to host the Goldbacks on Oct. 5.

“I think we’re good,” Boffalo said. “I think we need to keep working hard during games and practices.”