The Old Rochester Regional High School girls lacrosse team is off to a perfect start, winning its first five games of the season.

The team beat Mansfield 13-9 on Monday, in what head coach Scott Tavares said was the toughest game thus far.

“It was an opponent we’re not familiar with, and we knew it’d be good competition,” he said. “We really hadn’t been pushed yet.”

Tavares said beating a team like Mansfield, which is not in the South Coast Conference, not only provided the Bulldogs with a better gauge of where they stand, but it also provides them with another intangible.

“It definitely builds our confidence,” he said. “Before playing a team like this we didn’t quite know who we were.”

At the half, ORR was up 10-5. In the second half, Mansfield scored a couple goals to bring the game tighter, but ultimately ORR ran away with it.

Against Mansfield, Tavares said he saw a lot of things he liked about the way his team played – specifically mentioning the efforts of goalie Gates Tenerowicz.

“Defensively, we played extremely well,” Tavares said. “The goaltending was phenomenal. We knew we could score goals…but we got a chance to play defensively too.”

As for what’s next for the Bulldogs, Tavares said as the team approaches tougher games, they’ll have to continue to work on maintaining composure.

“There are always things we can do better, like working through pressure, maintaining decision-making and confidence, and keeping poise at the end of a tight game,” he said.

The Bulldogs return to league play on Wednesday, when they take on Fairhaven at home.