When asked about this year’s Old Rochester Regional boy’s varsity soccer team, Coach John Sullivan admitted, “It’s better than we expected.”

Sullivan said, “Last year we probably had one of the best teams this school had ever seen. We had 18 real good varsity players. We were big. We were strong. We were fast.”

Sullivan knew replicating the team’s 14-2-2 record last season with a “rookie team” was unlikely, but he wasn’t living in the past.

With only four returning players, Sullivan said, “Our goal for this year is to qualify for the state tournament. I think qualifying is a good goal to have.”

Needing two wins to get there, the Bulldogs loss on Monday to Bourne put them out of the running.

The team was challenged to overcome their timidity this year, said Sullivan. “They’re not competitive yet. They still have that rec league attitude, but they’re coming out of it one by one,” he said earlier in the season.

With so many younger players, including several freshmen, team captain Max Houck said, “It’s a lot of introducing them to how the game is played at the varsity level. It’s a lot more physical, a lot more intense and a lot of these guys haven’t been used to it.”

It was team captain Teddy Costa’s mission to whip the younger players into shape.

“We’ve got to work on our intensity and staying scrappy,” he said.

Although, the team won’t be going to state this year, Sullivan has high hopes for 2013.

“Next year we’ll have a very good team and the two years following that I think we’re going to make serious runs at a state championship,” he said.