The Pine Bush Bushmen had been together for nine days before hosting the Goshen Gladiators in a non-league boys’ soccer game on Wednesday afternoon at Pine Bush High School.

The Gladiators scored two second-half goals, handing the Bushmen a 3-1 loss at Alumni Field in the season opener for both teams.

“We have a bunch of sophomores playing a lot of time,” Pine Bush coach Marc Gittleman said. “We have things we have to figure out, which we knew before the game, and we know now after. We have room for growth.”

Even with all that inexperience on the field, the Bushmen scored first.

Junior Brady Bisaillon provided the opening salvo, giving the Bushmen a 1-0 lead, but shortly after Goshen’s Colin Butryn delivered the equalizer.

“If we can bottle those first 10 minutes and do that eight times every game, we’ll be fine,” Gittleman said. “We’ll be fine. I think part of it was, ‘oh, we scored.’ Now, we have to figure out how to maintain that momentum and not have a drop off.”

The drop off came, as Goshen controlled the action the rest of the way. They weren’t able to cash in several scoring opportunities and the teams went into halftime tied, 1-1.

But the Gladiators managed to cash in on those opportunities in the second quarter.

In the 51st minute, Goshen midfielder Zac Schaller sent the ball toward the goal, and his teammate Myles Warren nearly converged with Pine Bush goalkeeper Matthew Webster, but Warren got their first and redirected the shot inside the right corner, giving the Gladiators a 2-1 lead.

About 10 minutes later, Goshen’s Vincent Maviglia scored their third goal of the game.
It could have been a lot worse, but Webster, a sophomore, showed no fear in the goal for his first varsity game, and made 10 saves.

“Matt belongs on this field,” Gittleman said. “His first varsity game as a sophomore and he’s excellent back there. He’s going to take control, and if that’s what he’s doing in his first game, I can’t wait to see his last game of his senior year because he’s going to be awesome to watch.”

Despite their inexperience, the Bushmen have some returners in seniors Jeffry Palma, Daniel Hufcut, Dante Morals, and Jeffrey Saint HIllaire, as well as junior Nico Fermanian. New players include Dominic Licardi, Zach Graziano and Andres Martinez.

The Bushmen struggled in Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I play last year with a 1-6-1 record, but had a 7-8-1 overall record, falling one win short of a berth in the Section 9 Class AAA playoffs.

They’re looking to at least get in this year.

“This team’s been together a week and a half, and we’ve had six or seven practices (before the game),” Gittleman said. “Hunter Thompson in the back, in his first varsity game, absolutely was a game changer and that helped save a lot of opportunities back there. If that’s what we get in seven, what can we get in 14 and 21? We have a lot of room to grow, but I also believe that this team can do that in the amount of time we have.”