The Valley Central football team has played two games in Section 9 Class AA and hasn’t fared well in either of them.

They opened their league schedule with a 35-point loss to Monroe-Woodbury, and then fumbled deep in their own story, gave up an early punt return for a touchdown and fell, 62-13, to the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks on Thursday night at Academy Field.

The Vikings were behind the Goldbacks quickly as a fumble by quarterback John Wentink on a second-down sack set the Goldbacks up deep in Valley Central territory.

Two plays later, the Goldbacks’ Tajir Walker scored the first of his four touchdowns, a 17-yard scoring run.

The Vikings’ offense didn’t make any progress on their next drive and faced a fourth-and-20 from their own 8-yard line after two penalties.

Newburgh’s Jashon Thomas gave the Goldbacks a 14-0 lead with a 40-yard punt return.

Walker’s second touchdown run gave Newburgh a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, and his third gave them a 28-0 lead with 10:12 left in the third quarter.

That’s when the Vikings got their offense moving. After starting on their own 24-yard line, two encroachment penalties by the Goldbacks gave the Vikings their first first down of the night. Then, Wentink hit Denzel St. John for an 11-yard gain and the Vikings’ first on-field first down.

Wentink’s arm and the running of Matt Bond got the Vikings to the Newburgh 10-yard line, where the drive stalled after three straight incompletions.

The ball went back to the Goldbacks, and Hoover hit long passes to Thomas and Jun Rivas before hitting Thomas for a 35-yard touchdown pass.

The Goldbacks struck first in the third quarter on a 45-yard run by Thomas.

The Vikings’ got two touchdowns in the second half. Wentink connected with Adrian Gentles for an 18-yard touchdown pass. In the fourth quarter, backup quarterback Jayden Orozco hit Luke Watson for a 27-yard touchdown to cut Newburgh’s lead to 55-13 with 3:45 remaining in the game.

Newburgh’s Bruce Montgomery scored on an 8-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Daijon Johnson scored on a 7-yard touchdown run with 16.7 seconds left in the game.

Even though the Vikings have lost their first two conference games, they are still in contention for the fourth seed in the upcoming Section 9 Class AA playoffs. The Goldbacks, Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders and the Middletown Middies are expected to battle for the top three spots, leaving the Vikings, Pine Bush Bushmen and Kingston Tigers to battle for the fourth position.

The Vikings will host the Tigers on Friday and host the Bushmen on October 13.