Rams, Lady Rams start slowly in season's 1st week but coaches still see progress despite 2-7 record

The first week of the scholastic sports season has come and gone, but rather than dwell on the combined 2-7 record of five of the major Port Chester varsity sports teams, the coaches are focusing on the educational value of how much the Ram and Lady Ram student athletes have learned even as they have stumbled out of the starting gate.

That goes for each and every competitor on the Lady Ram and Ram soccer team as well as the volleyball, tennis and football teams.

"Why not us?" for example, is the rallying cry of head coach Danny Alvarado's Lady Rams soccer team who would love to win a league title after a down season last year.

The wrong answer

They didn't get the answer they wanted during their opening loss to a very good New Rochelle team away last Wednesday (9/4).

"But we did look good in moments, starting with Kelly Barrera giving us a quick 1-0 lead with a fast score," Alvarado said. "But we made lots of mental errors after that and wound up losing 7-1. We think we have the maturity to learn from those errors and will only get better. A lot better."

He is looking for stepped up play from his maturing junior Fab 5: Barrera, Jennifer (J-Lo) Lopez, Araceli Zuniga, Dallanara Ruano and Kayla Saavedra with Camila Napoli and Lesley Morocho coming on strong as is senior Emily Morocho.

Five Ram scorers

Head coach John Cafaldo's soccer Rams opened their season with a solid win over North Rockland away last Thursday (9/5). Kevin Garcia, Isaias Argueta, Brayan Coyt, Juan Ruiz and Leandro Forero scored goals during the 5-0 shutout, an especially impressive opening win against one of the top-rated teams in ultra-competitive Class AA Section One ball.

But the schedule did the Rams no favors by stacking their opening schedule with top tier teams, resulting in the Rams losing their second game to another top-ranked team in John Jay/East Fishkill 4-1 away Saturday with Jonathan Samano scoring the Rams’ only goal.

But you have to play the best to be the best and Cafaldo thinks his Rams will only get better by playing a tough opening schedule.

Lady Ram volleyballers

Veteran Lady Ram volleyball head coach Kathy Federici feels the same way after her team dropped two of their first three games, losing to New Rochelle and East Ramapo while bouncing back to shut out Carmel.

She likes the athleticism her team showed while getting better in each game they played.

Even though they lost to Ramapo 3-0 in their season opener away last Tuesday (9/3), for example, Federici likes the way her team played the Indians close with stellar play coming from—among others—the Big O and Little O (the sister act of Brooklyn and Madison Ostrowski). Madi had two aces, two kills and five digs while BK had two aces, four kills, one block and three digs. Adrianna Sherwood had an ace, two kills and four digs while Kiara Ortiz came through with one kill, three assists and two digs and Angela De Freitas came away with six assists and a dig. That added up to a final score of 16-25, 14-25 and 22-25, close but not close enough.

Balanced scoring

The beat went on as BK and Madi racked up still more impressive statistics during the 1-3 home loss to New Rochelle last Friday (9/6) by scores of 25-23, 20-25, 15-25 and 24-26. The scores are indicative of how close the matches were. BK came away with three aces, six kills, four blocks and three digs while Madi had three aces, three kills, four blocks and four digs. Sherwood had an ace, three kills, three blocks, and eight digs. De Freitas notched an ace and nine assists, Vanessa Sotelo came away with four aces and three kills. More solid play came from Samantha Cruz-Mazzini (two kills, one dig) and Ortiz (two kills, two aces, five assists).

All those ups and downs finally resulted in a 3-0 win over Carmel Monday (9/9) away by scores of 25-14, 25-11 and 25-22. This time around, Federici singled out especially outstanding play from libero Fiorella Napoli who finished up with 21 digs, picking up more than 95% of every ball that came her way. BK rolled a couple of sevens (aces and kills) to go along with an assist, four blocks and six digs while her kid sister's stats included a pair of fives (aces and kills) along with three blocks and six digs. The Lady Rams really kept the ball flying with Ortiz (five aces, six assists, four digs), Sherwood (three aces, one kill, three blocks, six digs), De Freitas (two aces, five assists, four digs), and Sotelo (three aces, one kill, four digs) with Cruz-Mazzini chipping in with a kill and three digs.

Dig they must

So dig they must, and they do and that kind of cohesive team play indicates the Lady Ram volleyballers are only going to get better as the season progresses.

Rather than dwell on the Lady Rams’ two season-opening home losses to Ossining and Sleepy Hollow last Friday (9/6) and Monday (9/9), respectively, head tennis coach Manny Martinez prefers to see the positives in the following: Interest in the newbie program is up (29 girls out for the team this year compared to 19 last year) and the losses in some of the matches have been very competitive. He also hopes to see what he calls "a more competitive core at the elementary and Middle School levels that he thinks would result in a tremendous improvement in our girls’ tennis program."

Promising septet

But right now he is focusing on an improving program led by his four captains: senior Sophia Rose Summa and juniors Geiny Correa, Kayla Sprague and Paolo Torres. Newcomers Gabriella Kessler, a senior, and juniors Marifer Acosta and Layla Berreto round out his top seven players, with Kessler and Summa playing first and second singles and Correa, the most improved player from last year, at either third singles or first doubles.

"The girls are learning the game and becoming more competitive each week," Martinez said.

Head Rams football coach Paul Santavicca is looking for a rebound game with his team at full strength after a tough 18-10 home loss to Scarsdale at SUNY Purchase last Saturday (9/7) when quarterback Jaylen Cummings and running back Carlyle Taylor almost brought the Rams all the way back in the final minutes after a sensational catch by Jake Jordan put the Rams in scoring position. They came close. But not close enough.

But things will hopefully go better for Port Chester in the next few games.

The upcoming games

Here's how the respective schedules line up in the upcoming games for the various teams:

RAMS SOCCER: Roy C. Ketcham away Friday (9/13) at 4:30 p.m., Carmel Tuesday (9/17) at 3:45 p.m. at home (SUNY Purchase is the home field during the ongoing construction at the high school, with some games, as indicated, still being played at PCHS). The next three games are also at home against Mamaroneck Thursday (9/19 at 3:45 p.m.), Ossining Saturday (9/21 at 11 a.m. at PCHS) and Fox Lane next Monday (9/23 at 3:45 p.m.).

LADY RAMS SOCCER: Roy C. Ketcham Saturday, Sept. 14 at home at PCHS at 4:15 p.m., Carmel away Monday (9/16 at 4:30 p.m.) and Fox Lane home (SUNY Purchase) Friday (9/20 at 3:45 p.m.).

LADY RAMS VOLLEYBALL: Mamaroneck home Monday (9/16 at 4:30 p.m.), Blind Brook away Tuesday (9/17 at 4:30 p.m.) and Fox Lane home Thursday (9/19 at 4:30 p.m.). NOTE: Volleyball home games will be played in the high school gym.

LADY RAMS TENNIS: Valhalla, Sleepy Hollow and E. Ramapo all away respectively on Friday (9/13), Monday (9/16) and Wednesday (9/18), all at 4:15 p.m., with their next home game next Friday (9/20) against Valhalla at the high school at 4:15 p.m.

RAMS FOOTBALL: Carmel Friday (9/13 at 6 p.m.) at home at SUNY Purchase.