Johns Hopkins men’s lacrosse coach Dave Pietramala knows his Blue Jays are considered the top team in the country — and he doesn’t care.

Pietramala watched his squad squeak out a 10-8 win over visiting UMBC at Homewood Field on Tuesday night, and felt the victory could be a pivotal moment in the Blue Jays (3-0) successful defense of the national title they claimed last May.

“We’ve got to expect everybody’s best game, no matter what,” he said. “And you know what? Everybody should expect our best game. That’s a simple fact. I’m not a big believer in the rankings right now. If that’s where they’ve got us ranked right now, great.”

The Blue Jays struggled at times with a patient, UMBC offense. The Retrievers (1-3) were able to possess the ball for six minutes during the second quarter, and held leads of 2-0, 5-4 and 6-5 against a team it had never defeated in five previous meetings.

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It was a game Johns Hopkins’ players uniformly said they had to “grind out.”

“They were a really tough team, they’re well coached,” Johns Hopkins attacker Stephen Boyle said. “We didn’t finish a lot of opportunities we would have liked.”

The Blue Jays travel to Long Island, N.Y., on Saturday to face Hofstra (1-1), which captured its first win against Brown last week. Hofstra has won just three of 19 games all-time against the Blue Jays.

After facing the Pride, the Blue Jays will face the toughest stretch of their season, with seven straight games against nationally ranked opponents, including second-ranked Duke (April 5) in a rematch of last season’s NCAA final, third-ranked Virginia (March 22), fourth-ranked North Carolina (March 29) and fifth-ranked Syracuse (March 15).

UMBC coach Don Zimmerman said his team’s loss to Johns Hopkins could be a pivotal moment in a season that began with the Retrievers losing their first two games.

“If you can play with Hopkins on Homewood Field, you can play with anybody,” he said. “We’re growing.”

The Retrievers’ effort against the Blue Jays gave them a confidence boost, but UMBC needs to amass wins to make the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. The Retrievers host Yale (1-1) on Saturday at 1 before welcoming sixth-ranked Maryland (2-1) to UMBC Stadium on March 14.

“[We can] probably take momentum from hanging with the No. 1 team in the country,” UMBC midfielder Terry Kimener said, “a lot of momentum.”

mpalmer@baltimoreexaminer.com