By Mike Zummo
It had been a long nine days for the Valley Central girls’ lacrosse team.
After losing two straight games, the Vikings got back in the winning column, tipping their record over .500 with a 15-2 win over the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks on Thursday at Valley Central High School in Montgomery.
Brianna McPhillips and Rebecca Sibley had four goals each and one assist each to lead the Vikings. Riley Kinsley had two goals and an assist and Ally Rivera scored two goals. Ava Ronaldson and Hannah Stahl each had one goal and two assists. Emily Malone scored a goal and Chloe Santangelo had an assist.
Senior goalkeeper Madison Roszkowski made one save.
The Vikings built a 12-0 lead over the course of the first quarter, setting the clock to run continuously about halfway through the second quarter.
The Goldbacks got on the board in the third quarter on a goal by Tina Wang. Madison Foti added a goal to cut the Vikings’ lead to 10 goals.
McPhillips scored her last two goals in the fourth quarter and Kinsley added another.
It had been a bit of a stop-and-go season for the Vikings as they opened the season in late March, beating the Highland Huskies, 14-8, on March 21 before losing to Section 1’s Albertus Magnus, 9-8, on March 25.
Those two games were followed by 15 days off, as the Vikings returned to action on April 9 with a 16-3 win over the New Paltz Huguenots.
Then they lost two straight non-league games, falling to the Minisink Valley Warriors, 12-5, on April 11, before opening last week’s play with a 14-8 loss to the Warwick Wildcats on April 16.
The Warriors and Wildcats were originally scheduled to be league opponents for the Vikings this season, but they requested and were placed in Class A with Section 9’s largest schools.
The win over the Goldbacks’ was the Vikings’ first Division I contest and after they open this week with a night game against the Red Hook Raiders.
The Vikings will host the Middletown Middies on Thursday, starting a run of four straight home games that will culminate with a May 2 meeting with the Pine Bush Bushmen.