Sports can be unpredictable, and it’s hard to know how a season will go. The Old Rochester Regional High School boys soccer team isn’t quite off to the start that head coach Mike Devoll imagined, but he remains confident in the team’s ability to bounce back.

After the Bulldogs lost 5-0 to New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, and dropped to 1-1-1, Devoll chose to see the positives.

“I thought we played a really good second half,” he said. “I was pleased with the second.”

Once the season begins, the games come rapidly, with few days of practice in between. The fast-paced schedule can make it difficult for a team to make adjustments.

“It’s hard because the season goes so quickly,” Devoll said. “It’s difficult to fix things.”

Going into the season, Devoll said expectations were fairly high, and despite the slight setback, he knows there’s enough time to get back on track.

“I think we should be competitive every year,” he said. “We expect to be at the top of the league. That’s changed a little because we’re struggling, but it’s getting better.”

The game against New Bedford wasn’t totally unexpected, and provided the team things to work on to move forward.

“It was a typical game against Voc Tech,” Devoll said. “They’re a good team, they score a lot of goals.”

For now, he said the team just has to concentrate on getting better, not on other teams. Following the loss to New Bedford, the team went on to win its next game 1-0 against Apponequet, and looks forward to continuing to improve.

“We still have more than half a season left,” Devoll said. said. “We can still win a lot of games.”