The second trip to the field was more difficult for the Pine Bush flag football team.

A week after routing the Highland Huskies, the Bushmen got enough offense and leaned on their defense late in a 25-13 win over the Our Lady of Lourdes Warriors on Friday at Pine Bush High School.

“This one was different,” said junior Christine Omosebi, who led the Bushmen with defensive flag pulls. “It was not like Highland at all, but we’ve still got to stop them, no matter how different they are.”

The Warriors, a first-year program, struggled early on, losing to Newburgh by 52 points, Kingston by 62 and then scored their first points in a 26-6 loss to the Saugerties Sawyers.

“It was a little tougher than we thought,” Pine Bush coach Kyle Schneider said. “I try to sometimes not tell them how teams are doing because they might play down or might have a slow start, but I think it was more about Lourdes improving.”

But that didn’t stop the Bushmen from striking first. After forcing the Warriors to punt to start the game, the Bushmen ran off a four-play, 50-yard drive that ended in a five-yard touchdown run by Kileigh Smykla.

On the next drive, quarterback Cailey Noviello completed a 16-yard touchdown pass to Omosebi. Smykla found Shea Toback to complete the extra point, giving the Bushmen a 13-0 lead.

“They’re pretty good back there,” Schneider said. “We have a couple of girls coming back that were ineligible, so that should help, too, in terms of speed. It’s their feature but I told them to get the other girls more involved with certain plays.”

The Warriors started moving the football late in the first half, possessing the ball for nearly eight minutes, converting two fourth downs as they moved 75 yards.

“I think in terms of our defense, they were starting to understand what we were doing and catching holes,” Schneider said.

“But their quarterback was able to throw the ball pretty well in terms of slant routes and things like that. We also missed a good amount of flag pulls.”

Our Lady of Lourdes quarterback Elizabeth Jacobs completed three passes to Rebecca Jacobs, the last of which resulted in a six-yard touchdown as time expired.

Claire Wagner ran in the extra point to cut the Bushmen’s lead to 13-7.

The score caused the Bushmen to need to regroup at halftime.

“We said, ‘just stop talking, and play,’” Omosebi said.

The Bushmen’s defense stymied Lourdes’ offense immediately as Kiersten Augustine intercepted Elizabeth Jacobs and returned the ball to the Bushmen’s 38-yard line.

Then, the offense used some trickery to get back on the board. Noviello passed the ball to Omosebi, who tossed the ball to Smykla, who took it 43 yards to paydirt, for a 19-7 Pine Bush lead.

“That was good for us as a big play there,” Schneider said.

However, the Warriors got right back when Laila Lloyd snatched one of the tosses out of the air and carried it 37 yards for a touchdown.

The Bushmen restored the two-touchdown lead on Ella Cancelliere’s 9-yard touchdown pass to Angela Hilgenfeldt.

With two non-league games behind them, the Bushmen will head directly into their league schedule, and they didn’t have a week to prepare as they were scheduled to host the Valley Central Vikings on Monday, the first of three games this week.

“I feel like we’re just going to keep getting better,” Omosebi said.