The Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks earned their first bid to the Section 9 Class A boys’ lacrosse tournament in program history.

After last week, they may be facing an uphill battle to get back in.

The Goldbacks lost their second league contest on Wednesday when they fell behind by five goals at halftime and were shut out by four goals in the third quarter, falling behind by nine goals in a 12-9 Division I game on Wednesday to the Valley Central Vikings at Valley Central High School in Montgomery.

The Goldbacks fell behind, 3-1 after the first quarter on two goals by Valley Central’s Dylan Butcher and another by Connor Stafford.

The Goldbacks got an early goal from Ryan Gamble, who shared the team scoring lead with Tyler Nichols, who also scored two goals.

Stafford scored three of his five goals in the second quarter. Julian Butcher scored three goals and Avery Zipkin had a goal and an assist, while Colin Kinsley registered two assists. Brody Jurman had a goal and an assist and Bryson Antal had two goals. Lucas Drake registered an assist.

The Vikings took a 7-1 lead with 8:41 remaining in the second quarter on a goal by Antal, causing Newburgh coach Jim Horton to call a timeout.

Nichols answered about 30 seconds later with a goal to get the Goldbacks back on the board and then scored a man-up goal with 4:14 left in the quarter to pull the Goldbacks to within four.

A late-quarter goal by Antal widened the Vikings’ lead to 8-3 at halftime.

The Vikings took a 12-3 lead into the fourth quarter, on goals by Butcher, Antal, Stafford and Zipkin.

Gamble opened the final-quarter scoring with his second goal of the game to cut the Vikings’ lead to 12-4. He also registered two assists in the game. Cole Mullarkey scored a goal with 3:42 left in the game and Sam Esposito scored with 2:43 remaining to make the score, 12-6.

The Goldbacks finished the week with their third straight road game, this time against the resurgent Pine Bush Bushmen, who the Goldbacks defeated last year to get into the Section 9 playoffs.

The Bushmen had already posted wins over last year’s Section 9 Class A finalists, Kingston and Monroe-Woodbury, and beat the Goldbacks, 16-8.