The Valley Central Vikings and Pine Bush Bushmen have been on a collision course all season.

Both teams had undefeated records heading into Thursday’s Division I girls’ lacrosse game with nothing less than the top seed in the Section 9 Class A tournament on the line.

The Vikings clinched the division title and the top tournament seed with a 9-4 win over the Bushmen at Pine Bush High School’s Alumni Field.

“I’ve been on the team for six years, so this is a great feeling, especially being No. 1 seed,” said Valley Central’s Rebecca Sibley, who led the Vikings with a game-high five goals. “We are definitely a family this year and you can really feel the energy and the connection on and off the field. I think it’s amazing.”

It was a slow start for the Vikings, who opened the season having lost three of their first five non-league games, but they’ve been hot since they opened league play on April 18 with a 15-2 win over the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks.
They posted divisional wins over the Middletown Middies, Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders and Kingston Tigers, setting up Thursday’s contest against the division’s top two teams.

“We’ve been starting to do new things practice and we’ve all been just working together,” Sibley said. “We’ve been practicing outside of practicing as a team, alone, without our coaches. Everything just started clicking, we all started to understand each other a little bit more and everything’s just meshing.”

The Bushmen had been on a similar trajectory, winning four of six non-league games before going 4-0 in divisional play before hosting the Vikings.

Thursday’s game was closest at the beginning as Sibley scored the first two goals to give the Vikings a 2-0 lead. Pine Bush’s Mackenzie Brown got the Bushmen on the board as time expired in the first quarter to cut the lead to 2-1.

Pine Bush’s Katy Cragan tied the game with 9:15 left in the second quarter with a goal on a bouncing shot.

But when a penalty against Pine Bush led to a goal by Valley Central’s Biranna McPhillips, the Vikings never looked back with 7:23 left in the quarter. She added her second goal more than two minutes later, and Sibley’s third sent the game into halftime with the Vikings’ leading 5-3.

Molly Giuffre and Emily Malone scored for the Vikings in the third quarter, giving the Vikings a four-goal lead.

Sibley scored her fourth and fifth goals in the fourth quarter to take a 9-3 lead before Pine Bush’s Sophia Licardi scored with 5:49 left in the game.

“I just really wanted to be that No. 1 seed because it’s my last season,” Sibley said. “It was like ‘go big or go home’ for me. I love this team like my family, so it’s great to see that we all got to do it together.”

Valley Central’s Rilee Kinsley, Lorena Rivera and Malone each had an assist. Loretta Rivera recorded her 100th career draw victory during the game.
Pine Bush’s Sam Budney had an assist in the game.

Both teams will now play four non-league games before the upcoming Section 9 Class A tournament, but the Vikings, who had been picking off Class A opponents since they were moved up this season from Class B will be the hunted in the postseason.

“We have to make sure we’re doing everything we’re doing and don’t change anything,” Sibley said. “We have to just be more aggressive and keep playing.”