MATTAPOISETT — When the Old Rochester Regional High School girls soccer team faced Fairhaven High School on Friday, Oct. 6, coach Jeff Lombard “knew it was going to be a battle right from the beginning.”

“It’s always a big rivalry with Fairhaven,” he said.

The Bulldogs carried a 7-0 win against Fairhaven in Friday’s game.

“They played well,” said Lombard. “They struggled a little bit in the first half because Fairhaven put a lot of pressure on us but I think after we got one or two [goals] it let us open up the field a little bit more.”

According to Lombard, it was “really important that we finished strong” after coming off a 0-2 loss against Dighton-Rehoboth. He hoped that the team’s win against Fairhaven would carry the team through the upcoming “big week.”

But despite the strong finish, the Bulldogs faced a 1-5 loss against Apponequet Regional High School on Monday, Oct. 9 and a 0-3 loss against Durfee High School Tuesday, Oct. 10.

Still, according to Lombard, his team is “working hard in practice” and he’s “seeing improvement each game, which is what we want to see.”

“It’s going to be a test for the next couple of weeks for sure,” he said. “But I think that they’re playing well together as long as we stay together.”

This year’s team, said Lombard, “has a lot of returning players, but [they’re] still pretty young.”

“We’ve got a lot of good players and they have experience at the varsity level already so I think this year, they’re starting to show what they’ve learned from past years,” he said.

But despite the Bulldogs’ tumultuous week, the team has six wins and five losses this season.

“I think in general this is a great group of student athletes, they’re really academically connected … and I think the biggest thing is to have them work for each other … and build each other up,” said Lombard.