By Ryan Mink
rmink@digitalsports.com

There had been nearly five overtimes, countless timeouts and innumerable plays drawn.

But Tuesday’s boys lacrosse game between arch rivals Whitman and Bethesda-Chevy Chase was decided in precisely eight seconds.

That’s how long it took Whitman to scoop up a turnover, push it down field and find junior Jordan Karr for the game-winning goal with seven seconds left in the fifth overtime of the Vikings’ 8-7 victory at Bethesda-Chevy Chase.

“It was too long of a game to not win,” said Karr, who missed all of last season with a knee injury. “There was no thinking. We just had to do it.”

In the process, Whitman (4-0) avenged a pair of losses to the Barons from last season. Bethesda-Chevy Chase (1-3) knocked Whitman out of the playoffs with a 14-7 drubbing in the 4A/3A West region quarterfinals.

The Vikings said they didn’t need much motivation to keep playing for nearly three hours.

“It’s easy,” junior midfielder Larry Kline said. “It’s our arch-rival.”

After four overtimes with both teams coming up empty on multiple scoring chances, Bethesda-Chevy Chase had possession in the final minute of the fifth overtime. But a wayward pass from behind the net rolled all the way to midfield.

Kline sprinted from his defensive position to scoop up the ground ball. He was immediately checked but sophomore Will Deutsch quickly corralled the ball and passed to junior attackman Patrick Slawta. Slawta took just a couple steps before seeing Karr wide open in front of the net.

“I knew it was the time to score,” said Slawta, who led the Vikings with two goals and three assists. “We had five overtimes and settled situations. I knew we had to finish it right then and there.”

Karr caught and shot the ball into the left side of the net in one motion, too quick for freshman goalie Preston Anderson – who made several huge overtime saves -- to hardly react. It was the third goal of the game for the midfielder turned attackman.

“I shot it low like 10 times in overtime and he was there every time,” Karr said before speaking to his emotion right after scoring. “Finally. I thought maybe I was in the crease or something. I thought something must have gone wrong.”

The game was extremely close for going terribly wrong for Whitman on several occasions. Whitman took a 7-5 lead with 7 minutes, 30 seconds remaining in regulation on a goal by Michael Harding but let the lead slip away.

Barons senior Chris Pappalardo assisted on Bethesda-Chevy Chase’s sixth goal with 6:54 left and scored the game-tying goal with 1:25 remaining in regulation, giving the Barons the momentum heading into overtime. Pappalardo finished with five goals and one assist and also handled face-off duties.

Since the game would be over on the first goal, each overtime possession was precious and tense at the same time. Bethesda-Chevy Chase senior Augustin Vita was less than a second away from winning the game in the third overtime but his shot and score came just after the buzzer sounded.

“Anybody could have won this game,” Whitman Coach Kevin Pope said. “I’m glad we’re on this end and not on that one.”