VOORHEESVILLE — The young players on the team are in an adjustment period and it showed in their first games of the season.

The Lady Blackbirds lost to Colonial Council foe Ravena, 7-1, on Tuesday afternoon.
"Today was not a good day," Voorheesville Coach Joe Santos said after the game. "We are a work in progress. We have a lot of new faces that have to understand what they need to learn on the field. Offense and defense, we need to know what to do on the field. We don’t know how to play defense when the other team has the ball. We’re lacking in all aspects."

The Blackbirds have 20 players on the roster and 13 are newcomers.
"They have to learn that playing junior varsity is a different level than playing varsity," Santos said. "So it’s an uphill battle. We can get this team there, but, before that, we have to continue the learning curve."

Santos said that his players are having trouble marking their opponents.
"We have new players on the varsity and they need to understand that they are playing much better players," Santos said. "They continue to give room to people. We continue to play soft and let people run all over the place.
"We had all this to overcome and we open the season with one of the better opponents," Santos added. "It was not very good. A lot of the goals were easy. They were silly goals, mental lapses."

The Blackbirds got called for a penalty early in the game that led to a score.
"At the beginning of the game, we had an unfortunate call," Santos said. "They got a penalty kick in the first two minutes and things unraveled after that. Our goalie, who is a returning player, it was not one of her best performances. Last year, she did very well. But she did not have a good day."
"Learning under fire"

The Blackbirds will have to try and get better during the season.
"The girls will be learning under fire," Santos said. "They need to realize we are not where we need to be. We were in the same situation a couple of years ago; they realized that, and it was a big awakening. There’s the same hope. As we get better, the youngsters get better, game to game, practice to practice."

Voorheesville does have a couple of returning players in Hayley George and Lindsay Dembo.

George is in her fifth year on the varsity and scored the lone goal for the Blackbirds on Tuesday. Dembo is playing sweeper and is the anchor on defense.
"She is one of the better players in the league," Santos said.

Santos said that his players do have talent.
"There’s potential for the girls that start and the ones that will come off the bench," he said. "Actually, some of the girls on the bench are playing better than the ones that are starting. We had four games last week and I missed three because I was in the hospital. It wasn’t a good start."

Santos said that it shouldn’t have affected the work the team did before its first games.
"We got a lot of work done in the pre-season," he said. "Being on the field and knowing where to stand and who to mark are things that need to be done. We want that going on in other games."

Santos believes the team can catch on and change its fortunes.
"I have hope we can get turned around," the coach said. "Today’s game was tremendously difficult. But I know they can play much better. They need to see where we need to go. It’ll be a challenge for each individual."