It’s been a long week for the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks.

It was also a good one.

The Goldbacks played four games last week against mostly top teams in not only Section 9 but also the state, winning all four and picking up their 10th win of the season on Saturday with a 3-0 win over the Goshen Gladiators in a non-league boys’ soccer game at Goshen High School.

“These boost everybody’s mind and happiness after a four-game week,” Newburgh goalkeeper Ryan Salony said. “Obviously, you want to keep going and growing after that. It’s definitely a boost in our morale.”

Salony, the Goldbacks’ backup goalkeeper, entered during the New Rochelle game in what turned out to be a battle of the New York State Sportswriters Association’s third-and fourth-ranked teams. The No. 3 Goldbacks won that game 4-2.

“That shows us that we can play with the top teams in the state and actually it could have been 5-2 but we missed a (penalty kick),” Newburgh coach Matt Iorlano said. “So, to go down there on their turf and play as well as we did, it’s a definite plus. I purposely rescheduled that game, and I knew it was going to bang us up this week, just so that these guys could see what it’s going to be like moving forward if we do get to regional play.”

The success continued when the Goldbacks returned to Section 9. They shut out the Cornwall Dragons, 2-0, before shutting out the Gladiators on Saturday.

Piero Altimirano got the Goldbacks on the board in the seventh minute and Griffin Robinson added the second 10 minutes later, giving the Goldbacks a 2-0 lead.

“That boosted our mentality and our morale,” Salony said. “It was so positive after that, and we just kept on playing.”

So did the Gladiators, who put intense pressure on in two situations. In the first half – around the 20th minute – they had two direct kicks in Newburgh’s defensive third but failed to convert. Salony made a punch save five minutes later to stop another goal.

Then in the second half, the Gladiators had three corner kicks in a four-minute save, but the defense held.

“We should have done better on marking and that’s definitely what we need to practice on,” Salony said. “But other than that, we did good defensively.”

However, the Goldbacks still had a 2-0 lead and if the Gladiators found the back of the net, it could have been a different game. However, Youssef Es-Sabri took care of that, scoring a goal to finish a corner kick, and giving Newburgh a 3-0 lead.

“The third goal was huge,” Iorlano said. “It just let everybody relax a little bit and get some tired legs off the field.”

The Goldbacks didn’t have much rest with another three games this week. They were scheduled to host the Pine Bush Bushmen on Monday before facing the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders on Thursday. They’ll finish the week on the road against Albany.

“We feel amazing,” Salony said. “We just keep on moving. We don’t care about the ranks at all and just play our best, always.”