It took a big third quarter for the Valley Central Vikings to put the game away.

After taking a five-goal lead at halftime, the Vikings shut out the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks by four goals in the third to take a nine-goal lead in a 12-6 Division I boys’ lacrosse game on Wednesday at Valley Central High School in Montgomery.

Through the first nine games, the Vikings are unbeaten in Division I play with wins over the Middletown Middies on April 17 and the win over the Goldbacks. Their only reported losses came to Section 2 LaSalle and Section 1’s Suffern.

“I think we’re getting better,” but I think sometimes we don’t bring it as much as we should,” said Connor Stafford, who led the Vikings with five goals in the win over the Goldbacks. “We’ve seen ups and we’ve seen downs, but hopefully it’s all up from here.”

They needed to bring it as much as possible on Friday night when they faced last year’s Section 9 Class A runner-up, the Kingston Tigers at Valley Central High School.

However, Wednesday against the Goldbacks, they took a 3-1 lead after the first quarter on two goals from Dylan Butcher, and another by Stafford.

The Goldbacks got an early goal from Ryan Gamble.

Stafford scored three of his five goals in the second quarter.

“They left me open on the outside a lot, and goalie wasn’t one of their strong points,” Stafford said. “So, pulling it from the outside was the best chance to score.”

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.

“We put a couple of goals in the net,” Valley Central coach Tom Stoddard said. “We’re a little lost on defense right now, but we’re trying to figure it out. That’s usually the hardest thing going into the season: to get the kids to play good team defense.”

The Vikings took a 12-3 lead into the fourth quarter, but the offense went cold, and the defense struggled as the Goldbacks scored three unanswered goals.

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 Vikings entered their final game of the week with two divisional wins, one shy of guaranteeing them a spot in the Section 9 Class A playoffs. They didn’t get it as they suffered a 16-14 loss on Friday at home to the Kingston Tigers.

The Vikings are scheduled to return to league play on Friday against the defending Section 9 Class A champions, the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders.

“We’re definitely better than at the beginning of the season,” Stoddard said. “We would have liked to have a better showing (Wednesday), but sometimes games like this happen. We’re trying to get better for the playoffs, hopefully.”