It was a rough morning in what has become a rough season for the Pine Bush boys’ soccer team.

The Bushmen gave up three goals in each half in a 6-0 non-league loss to the Cornwall Dragons on Saturday morning.

“It’s been a rough season for sure,” Pine Bush coach Marc Gittleman said. “We are struggling to string our offense together. It’s really tough to win games when you don’t score goals.”

Even tougher when there is a lack of opportunity.

The Dragons kept the ball in the Pine Bush defensive zone for most of the game and capitalized less than 9 minutes into the game when Allan Montano scored off an assist from Ryan Surowiec.

About eight minutes later, Montano added his second goal of the game.

“Cornwall is always going to move the ball well,” Gittleman said. “They work well as a unit. If you’re not going to put pressure on and if we’re not going to be able to win those balls to stop the one-twos being together, we’re going to be under siege the entire game.”

The Bushmen held the Dragons off the board for most of the rest of the first half until 24 seconds remained, when a ball bounced off Pine Bush goalkeeper Santiago Saavedra who declined to scoop the ball up with his hands and instead tried to kick it away.

Surowiec redirected the ball into the goal for a 3-0 halftime lead.

The Bushmen had an opportunity to score second half, but Trevor Spignardo’s shot was saved by Cornwall goalkeeper Tiernan Limperoulos.

Surowiec scored two more second-half goals, the third with about 22 minutes to go, and with the game out of reach, Gittleman had an opportunity to see some of his less experienced players on the field.

“These guys will work 80 minutes no matter what,” Gittleman said. “And even the guys who were coming off the bench who don’t get a lot of minutes during the game, they’re working, and they’re running through the ball. They’re trying to make things happen. That much I can credit them and respect them.”

The Dragons finished the game off when Colin Spaulding sent a direct kick in from about 35 yards and Matt Schaal came out of nowhere to redirect it into the goal for a 6-0 lead.

With no way to qualify for the Section 9 Class AA tournament, the Bushmen are going to spend the rest of the season playing out their final five games and hope to propel them into 2023 with a strong showing.

“We’re focused on growing,” Gittleman said. “When you have a young team, it doesn’t matter if there’s going to be postseason play or not, though we want that to be the case. We have to grow and get better because we don’t like the way we feel right now. We don’t want to feel that way ever again.”