The boys’ lacrosse team was defeated 8-6 by Bella Vista on Saturday in a close battle into the last few minutes.

In the first quarter, the Vikings trailed behind Bella Vista despite multiple saves by Quintin Valenti (’16). Bella Vista scored two goals early on, but the Vikes were able to tie the score with goals by Zach Levitan (’15) and Will Hare (’14). Josh Stern (’14) also had a key check in the last seconds of the quarter to prevent Bella Vista from scoring another goal.

The second quarter started out with both teams battling neck and neck for the lead. Bella Vista scored the first goal of the quarter, but Jordan Gans (’14) was able to tie the score 3-3 with a roll shot straight to the net. After Bella Vista scored another goal, Gans yet again matched up the score 4-4 and Matt Seligson (’16) scored to boost a 5-4 lead by the end of the first half.

In the third quarter, Bella Vista started off strong, scoring two goals to grab a 6-5 lead. Tully McCallister (’14), however, shot a goal which at first skimmed on the threshold, but the goalie accidentally pushed the ball in to tie the score 6-6.

Despite strong defense by James Harrison (’14) and shots by Gans, Bella Vista scored 2 goals in the fourth quarter and Paly was unable to trigger a comeback. Cole Tierney (’16) almost had a key goal, but it narrowly missed the net. The Vikings ended up dropping the game with a final score of 8-6.

Jason Trisler (’14) thought that his team didn’t play to their full potential and wasn’t satisfied with their performance.

“[McCallister] got thrown out and got ejected,” Trisler said. “We were man down for 6 minutes and we could have played better. A lot of individual efforts could have been better [and] we just didn’t play as a team.”

Head coach DJ Shelton also thought that his team didn’t play as well as they could have especially in the beginning of the game.

“We came out a little unfocused,” Shelton said. “I think that in the middle of the game we definitely picked it up and played much better, [but] we weren’t being as aggressive as we could be.”

The Vikes will play their next game this Thursday against Carmel High School at 7 p.m. in Viking territory.