Johns Hopkins couldn't win faceoffs to their liking, received so-so goalie play and committed nine penalties under the lights at Homewood Field last night.

The Blue Jays still dusted off Towson 16-7.

So the Hop is now 6-5, one win away from ensuring NCAA tournament eligibility. And while Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala insists his team "isn't out of the woods yet," in reality they are unless Mount St. Mary's pulls off the most absurd upset in the sport's history on Monday.

(Here's a plug for the Mount: It knocked off VMI last night to make the MAAC tournament chase a little more interesting. And any program in a league with limited scholarships that has the gumption to schedule Navy, Maryland, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Virginia and Bucknell as a nonconference slate deserves some props).

One thing that went very, very right last night: Matt Bocklet, who wound up with 10 groundballs and seemed to vacuum up every errant pass or dropped ball. The Blue Jays don't really have another player on defense capable of being nearly that efficient, which means a good night from Bocklet might be just as necessary as fine performances from Paul Rabil and Stephen Peyser and Kevin Huntley (who scored his 100th career goal last night) for Hopkins' long-term success this season.

--- Patrick Stevens