It was a rocky start to the start of the Pine Bush football season as the Bushmen struggled with turnovers in a 32-8 loss to the Middletown Middie Bears on Friday night at Faller Field.

“You know, we met adversity right away in the game, and the kids played hard and played hard the whole time so I’m proud of their effort,” Pine Bush coach Jim Wright said.

Right away, meaning the third play from scrimmage as the Bushmen lost a third-down fumble that was recovered by Middletown’s Jason Cintron.

Middletown scored on the ensuing drive, a 10-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dalton Howell to Jaden Farrell.

The Bushmen turned the ball over three times, leading to 18 Middletown points.

“If you give anybody short fields like we were tonight, you’re not going to do too well and that’s what we did tonight,” Wright said. “We put the ball on the ground too much.”

The Bushmen also had to reach deep into their backfield depth chart early on as they lost junior Khristian Walker in the first quarter to what appeared to be a knee injury, and junior Edward Ryan Garmendiz also battled injury throughout the game.

The bulk of the offensive load went to junior Gunnar Meland and some carries from junior Jack Gandolfini.

“The kids that came in, I’m proud of them,” Wright said. “They hopped in and did the best they could, and they fought all the way to the end. You can’t complain about that. Not at all.”

The Bushmen got their only score late in the first quarter.

After the Middie Bears took a 6-0 lead, the Bushmen traded punts before getting an offensive jolt from Garmendiz, who broke loose on second down for a 62-yard run to the Middletown 11.

Two plays later, he scored on an 8-yard touchdown run to tie the game, and then reached the end zone on the two-point conversion to give the Bushmen an 8-6 lead with 1:21 left to go in the first quarter.

“We’re in an offense that’s high-risk, high-reward offense,” Wright said. “When it’s going good, it’s high rewards. When it’s not, it’s going to look like what we just saw.”

The Bushmen also had a long drive in the third quarter after the Middie Bears punched them in the mouth for 12 points in the space of about 70 seconds.

Starting on their own 27-yard line, the combination of Meland, Gandolfini, Garmendiz and sophomore Alex Bucolo, led the Bushmen to the Middletown 5-yard line.

But Gandolfini lost 2 yards on fourth down to turn the ball back over to Middletown.

“We drove the field, too, but we didn’t put points on the board,” Wright said.

Howell also burned the Bushmen twice for two touchdown passes. He gave the Middie Bears the lead with a 29-yard pass to Rodney Bell. He then hit Jaden Farrell for the two-point conversion to give Middletown a 14-8 lead.

He also followed as Pine Bush fumbled with another 29-yard touchdown pass with 7:34 left in the third quarter and finished the scoring by hooking up with a Bell for a third time in the fourth quarter.

“We’re all young in the secondary,” Wright said. “They’re all sophomores back there, and they took advantage of it.”

Despite the loss, Wright said he likes his team’s effort, but his team has plenty of room for improvement.

“We’ve got to learn and grow and get better,” Wright said. “We have to take one step at a time.”