I sure think it is. Dave Pietramala runs it, and as a player and a defensive coach, he has been one of the best ever. However, there is more than just Petro running the defense. Dave Allan also helps out. Dave has been coaching for a long time. He has coached the Mount Washington Club Team, Gilman's Varsity Lacrosse Team for 2 different stints, assisted at Gilman, and been an assistant at Loyola College. It has been said before that Allan's knowledge of the defensive end of the lacrosse field is 2nd to none. He is an absolute genius. Dave has been a guidance counselor at Gilman for some time, and players from Gilman have told me that, whenever a big-time college coach-ie.-Dom Starsia, and Bill Tierney(both of whom run their teams' defenses), they would often call Dave Allan for help. This, of course, was before he went to Hopkins. I remember when John Tucker was the head coach at Gilman. Tucker, a genius of offense(and also a finalist for the Hopkins head job in 1998), ran a brilliant offense, and Allan ran a great defense. IMHO, that had to be one of the best coaching staffs ever at any level of lacrosse.

The Hopkins defense has played well most of the season, and they really seem to be peaking right now. They totally manhandled Georgetown and Delaware, both of whom didn't have bad offenses at all. There is no doubt that Hopkins will get a much tougher test when facing Danowski, Greer, and Company. However, if they do a solid job and throw things at them that they have not seen much of or at all this season, we could see another Blue Jay title game victory.