VOORHEESVILLE — The Voorheesville girls’ soccer team beat a less talented team on Monday afternoon.

But, in order to compete with the top teams in the Colonial Council, the Lady Blackbirds will have to play a lot better.

Voorheesville had an offensive surge in beating Cohoes, 5-3, Monday afternoon in Voorheesville.
"We sleep walked through this game," said Voorheesville Coach Joe Santos on Monday. "It is very disconcerting. I saw this before the game. And it happened two games ago against Schalmont and we got thrashed."

Voorheesville lost to Schalmont, 9-0, on Friday in Rotterdam.
"We have a lack of mental acuity," Santos added. "It’s not the physical ability not running and kicking. It’s mental; they are not ready to play."

The Lady Blackbirds did have some good moments as they scored three goals in the first half.

Jessica Giglio scored the first goal of the contest for the Blackbirds just two minutes into the opening half.

Giglio battled a couple of Cohoes players for the ball in front of the goal; she was able to get to it and kick it into the goal for the score.

Monique Bidell scored at the 27:03 mark of the first half. Bidell got a pass in front of the goal, through a couple of defenders, from Hayley George.

The third goal of the contest came from a penalty kick by George.

Giglio dribbled the ball into the penalty box in front of the goal and was taken down from behind by a Cohoes defender. A foul was called and George took the kick — any player on the field is allowed to — from the penalty mark eight yards away.

Sealing the win

The second half was much sloppier for the Blackbirds.

Cohoes scored with 31:32 left in the game on a goal by Courtney Hahn. Hahn beat the defense to the ball and had an easy shot on goal.

George’s second goal of the game for Voorheesville gave the Birds some cushion. George got a pass from Bidell and fired a hard, high shot into the upper part of the goal.

But Cohoes continued to battle. Its second goal came off the foot of Courtney Galuski with 20:37 left in the game. She got a rebound off a shot that was saved by Voorheesville goalie Brittney Holcomb.

Hahn scored her second goal of the game for Cohoes to cut the lead to one point with 9:11 left in the contest.

She got to a loose ball that rebounded after Holcomb made a save.

The pressure was on Voorheesville for the next few minutes but the Birds were able to hold off Cohoes and finally put the game away in the final minute.

Meghan Inglis scored with 42 seconds left to seal the win.

George had a direct kick deep into Cohoes territory. She kicked the ball and it bounced off Blackbird Emily Clark. Inglis got to the loose ball and blasted it into the goal to give her team a 5-3 lead.
"The offense did well," Santos said. "The goals we got were good goals."

The Lady Blackbirds had more scoring opportunities than Cohoes but couldn’t connect on most of them. Santos was not pleased that his players tried to dribble through the Cohoes defense instead of passing the ball.

Visual aid
"We’re going to plan B," Santos said on Monday. "We’re going to look at the video on Wednesday and I told them we’ll see what it is instead of me just talking about it. I don’t think at times they understand what I’m telling them. It’ll be a visual aid. We don’t play until Friday; we can learn from this and perhaps understand."

The Blackbirds are 2-3 overall and all five games were league contests. They play Mechanicville at home on Friday then travel to Colonial Council newcomer Broadalbin-Perth on Tuesday.