Goldbacks get first win of the season

By Mike Zummo
Posted 9/15/21

The Kingston Tigers may have had more opportunities, but the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks made the most of the ones they had.

Javier Rodriguez scored four goals, leading the Goldbacks to their …

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Goldbacks get first win of the season

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The Kingston Tigers may have had more opportunities, but the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks made the most of the ones they had.

Javier Rodriguez scored four goals, leading the Goldbacks to their first win of the season in an Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association boys’ soccer game on Saturday afternoon at Academy Field.

“It means a lot,” said Rodriguez. “This is our first win of the season, so we practice a lot of things in practice like how to move the ball side to side and how to find me more in the middle. It’s a very good accomplishment winning our first game right now.”

Rodriguez scored his first goal in the 26th minute when he ran past the Kingston defense, ran directly at Kingston goalkeeper Cody Baker and pushed the ball into the right corner post.

“Since I was a little kid, I’ve been using my speed against them,” Rodriguez. “It’s helped me a lot.”

The early goal by Anthony Rodriguez, which came off as hot that was deflected by Baker came after a flurry of activity in the Goldbacks’ defensive third.

The defense bent, at times, but along with goalkeeper Andreas Gillmeier, kept the Tigers (0-2-0) off the scoreboard.

“We’ve definitely got some work to do back there,” Newburgh coach Matt Iorlano. “Right now, there’s a lot of mishits and a lot of balls being force where they don’t need to be forced, which are leading to turnovers.

These are things we’re working on right now and like I said, ‘it’s going to happen slowly.’”

The Goldbacks were able to tighten things up a little in the second half with Rodriguez scoring two more goals in the first 10 minutes of the half to give the Goldbacks a 4-0 lead.

“When you have a weapon like Javy, it makes things nice,” Iorlano said. “He was on today and we fed him some nice balls and obviously he put them in the net. It makes it a little easier when you’re scoring.”

He picked up his fourth goal with about 27 minutes to go in the game when a shot attempt by Steven Hernandez was a little too flat across the goalmouth.

Rodriguez was there to give it a nudge by Baker for his softest goal of the day.

“I was in the right place at the right time, so I took advantage of that and scored,” he said.

The large lead gave the Goldbacks a chance to get some of the reserve players in the game during the last 20 minutes. They didn’t put any more goals on the board, but they did preserve the shutout.

“It helps them get used to the varsity level, so it helps a lot,” Rodriguez said. “If somebody gets injured, they’re ready to play.”