Strong goalie performances, in-your-face defense and a roaring crowd marked the annual Battle of the Board as the La Jolla High Vikings lacrosse team surged to a last minute 6-5 win over the Knights of The Bishop’s School March 26 at Edwards Stadium. After a hard-fought scoreless first quarter, with save after save by goalies Jack Kelly for Bishop’s and James Cochrane for La Jolla, Viking junior attackman Taylor Bourgeois took the ball behind the net and drove to the right, beating one Knight defender and evading another as he jumped high through the crease to stick a hard shot top right into the goal for the first point of the game. The Knights fought back, with midfielder Mike P. Jensen scoring a side-armed driving goal assisted by Robbie Stiefler, during the see-sawing first half. Midfielder Mike Colarusso, in his first game since a sidelining injury last season, answered for the Vikes with an unassisted shot on goal. A defensive battle followed until Bishop’s Zach Negroni evened the match, 2-2, with 39 seconds left in the half. Four minutes into the third quarter, Bishop’s took its first lead of the night with another driving goal from Jensen, assisted again by Stiefler, making the score 3-2. Midfielder Kitt Livingston answered for the Vikings with an unassisted left-handed shot from the wing. La Jolla followed with a goal from 6-foot-5 junior attackman Mike Soumekh, the Vikings’ leading scorer who had been shut down by University of Denver-bound Knights senior Nick Eggemeyer. The Vikings led 4-3 at the end of the third quarter. Soumekh scored again to widen the Vikings’ lead, but the Knights fought back to a 5-5 tie with two more goals — the first by attack man Negroni, who then tallied an assist to attackman Adam Valeiras, scoring with 5:25 left in the game. Tension tightened and it appeared the game might head into overtime. Then Vikings midfielder Jordan Dyer scored the winning goal, rolling the ball in after dropping a pass from Soumekh with 58 seconds left. Bishop’s midfielder Mike D. Jensen won the final face-off, but the Vikings’ defense held, with goalie Cochrane stopping a one-on-one shot with seven seconds left. For the defense, Cochrane had 13 saves, while Soumekh had two goals and two assists for a game-high total of four points. Mike D. Jensen of Bishop’s and Casimir Morawski of La Jolla battled especially hard for key offensive possessions on each face-off. “Our guys just learned how to finish a game tonight,” said Vikings head coach Matt Rosenberg of the CIF-San Diego match-up. “We were really proud of the kids. This was a great, hard-fought game from both sides.” The win was La Jolla’s fifth straight for a 5-1 record going into league play. Bishop’s had won its previous two games; its record stands at 3-2. With the prize of a custom painted surfboard moving to the winning school, the hometown Battle of the Board rivalry launched in 2002. Bishop’s won the previous three contests, with La Jolla’s clutch win evening the local series at 4-4.