Half of the Section 9 Class AA boys’ soccer bracket could have been labeled Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2.

All three teams – Pine Bush, Valley Central, and Warwick – qualified for the tournament and after dispatching Valley Central on a last-second goal, the Pine Bush Bushmen’s attempt at a second straight run to the sectional finals was stopped short, 4-1, by the Warwick Wildcats on

Thursday at the Hudson Sports Complex in Warwick.

It was the Bushmen’s third loss to the Wildcats and Sergio Gonzalez’s goal, assisted by Patrick Conklin was the first time the Bushmen had scored on the Wildcats in those three games.

Joe Holder had two goals and an assist for the top seeded Wildcats and McGowan had a goal and an assist. Cesar Polonia also scored a goal and Aden Razukiewicz had an assist. He also made five saves.
Kealan Stelmaszyk had seven saves for Pine Bush.

The Bushmen advanced to the semifinals after a 3-2 win over Valley Central on Oct. 25, a game that saw Joseph Darrell score the game-winning goal with about 16 seconds left in the second half.

After falling behind 2-0, the Bushmen scored on two set plays in exactly the same fashion. In the 36th minute, Roberto Lopez headed a corner kick into the goal to cut the Vikings’ lead to 2-1. And then shortly after, Sergio Gonzalez did the same thing to tie the game at 2-2.

The top-seeded Wildcats went on to Saturday’s semifinal game in which they faced the second-seeded Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks, 1-0 winners over No. 2 Monroe-Woodbury in the other semifinal.

The fifth-seeded Bushmen’s season ended with an 8-10-0 record.