Mason Hoover made the perfect throw and Jashon Thomas laid it all on the line.

He dove into the end zone and pulled the pass in with his right hand over the Valley Central defensive coverage for the Goldbacks’ fifth touchdown of the game in a 62-13 Section 9 Class AA victory over the Valley Central Vikings on Thursday night at Academy Field in Newburgh.

“My quarterback put it right where it needed to be,” Thomas said. “Honestly, he dropped it right in the bucket. It was great coverage by the DB, but my quarterback put it right where it needed to be.”

That was a point of emphasis for the Goldbacks during practice last week, as during the previous week Hoover’s deep passes to his wide receivers went long.

This week, they were on target.

While the Goldbacks no longer have the Division I target Deondre Johnson, now playing for the Rutgers Scarlett Knights, they have a solid group of receivers that includes Thomas, Jun Rivas and Xavier Sill.

Christopher Leggett also provides a receiving option from the tight end position.

Thomas returned a punt in the first quarter and hauled in his late first half touchdown pass. He also scored on a 45-yard run in the third quarter.

“I think we’ve got four kids that can really catch the ball and do some different things, whether they beat you deep or whether they catch the ball underneath,” Newburgh coach Bill Bianco said. “That play, obviously, was a great catch, a one-handed catch, but the ball was right on the money.”

The Goldbacks jumped on the Vikings quickly when a sack and fumble gave the Goldbacks the ball deep in Vikings’ territory. That set up the first of Tajir Walker’s four touchdown runs.

The defense stopped the Vikings on fourth down, setting up Thomas’ punt return.

Very quickly, the Goldbacks led, 14-0.

“It was great,” Thomas said. “Coach has been talking about it all week, how we need to start coming into the game fast, beat them fast and I think we did that.”

It was a night when everybody got into the action, as Bruce Montgomery scored on an 8-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Daijon Johnson scored in a 7-yard touchdown run with 16.7 seconds left in the game.

The Vikings’ got two touchdowns in the second half. Valley Central quarterback John 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.

The Goldbacks will have their third straight home game on Friday night when they host the Middletown Bears at Academy Field in a rematch of last year’s Section 9 Class AA championship game, which the Goldbacks won, 35-0, at Faller Field.

“We’re confident that we’re going to win, but we’re not going to undermine them,” Thomas said. “We’re going to stay focused and keep being humble.”