A few observations of note from the No. 1 Blue Jays' 10-8 decision against the Retrievers last night:

1. UMBC did everything it could to lessen Johns Hopkins senior attackman Kevin Huntley's impact. The Retrievers stuck 6-foot-3, 220-pound sophomore defenseman Matt Kresse on Huntley (5-10, 190), and every time Huntley touched the ball, another defender would join Kresse. Huntley, who had scored nine goals in the Blue Jays' first two contests, finished with zero goals and zero points. "They did a great job," coach Don Zimmerman said of his defense. "Coach [Pat] Tracy [who works with the defense] had the game plan. I thought we had good matchups."

2. Blue Jays sophomore midfielder Michael Kimmel said the players weren't overly worried at halftime when the score was tied at five. Kimmel said the team absorbed confidence from coach Dave Pietramala, who did not overreact in the locker room. "Everyone's so good that you can't expect to go up big on everyone," Kimmel said. "He just told us to keep playing and keep working."

3. Asked if Pietramala didn't peel the paint off the walls during halftime, Kimmel replied, "He's been keeping it cool nicely. It's been nice." 

4. Johns Hopkins' 12-game winning streak is the second-longest under Pietramala and fifth of at least eight games during Pietramala's tenure. Senior midfielder Paul Rabil's two goals and an assist extended his consecutive games streak with at least a point to 19.

5. And as pointed out by reader John Herold, I neglected to put the teams' records in the game story in my haste to beat The Sun's deadline. The Blue Jays improved to 3-0, while UMBC dropped to 1-3.