By Jordan J. Michael

VOORHEESVILLE –– The Lady Birds soccer team has been busy in the off-season and Head Coach Joe Santos is hoping it pays off.

“Every girl on this team played indoor and outdoor soccer over the past year,” said Santos on Wednesday. “Some of them went to Portugal with the New Scotland Soccer Club. It’s been a lot of work.”

Voorheesville played 77 scoreless minutes with Catholic Central at home on Saturday until Barb Falzo shot one past Michelle Thamsen for the Crusaders’ win, 1-0.

“We misplayed the ball in the middle of the field. We let the ball bounce instead of playing it out of the air,” Santos said after the game on Saturday. “We can’t be mishandling the ball in key moments like that.”

The Lady Birds played its first Colonial Council league game at Watervliet on Tuesday and won, 6 to 0. Eryn Ryan had two goals and Justina Miranda, Jenny Belgiovine, Melissa Bogart, and Michaela Conway each had one goal.

“Watervliet has somewhat of a depleted team right now and we were able to score an assortment of goals,” said Santos. “I can’t really figure out where my team is yet because that wasn’t a hard challenge.”

Santos is hoping that his team goes from being “a good team” to “a very good team” as the season progresses. “If we win the close games, then it would show me growth from last season,” he said.

The Lady Birds continue to be the only Class CC school in the tough Colonial Council.

“My hope is that we can be competitive in every single game,” said Santos. “It all depends on what type of progression we have.”