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After trailing for most of the game, Northview Elementary pulled away with a five-point win over the reigning Science Bowl champions in the last few minutes of a Jan. 26 elimination round match.

Northview defeated Montpelier Elementary of Laurel 195-190 to advance to a March 19 semifinal match against Berwyn Heights Elementary.

The Science Bowl is a trivia competition in its 24th year that includes elementary and middle schools from around Prince George's County. Teams of three players and one alternate compete for points by correctly answering questions in science-based categories, such as "Green Things" and "Zoo Parade." A camera crew tapes the games at the Bonnie F. Johns Educational Media Center in Landover, and they appear on cable television throughout the school year.

Montpelier had a 50-point lead on Northview late in the game. But a rapid succession of correct answers put the Northview team within 10 points, with only one 5-point and one 10-point question left on the board.

Northview chose the 10-point question: A chicken egg will not hatch into a chicken unless that egg has been what?

Sixth-grader Ashley Woodall, the team captain for Montpelier, buzzed in first.

"Incubated," she answered. Incorrect.

Northview team captain Carlos Regino, a fifth-grader, buzzed in with the correct answer: "Fertilized." The steal left no chance for Montpelier to come back.

The game's last few questions were just as intense for the students' parents, who watched the competition on a video screen in another room.

"I was on pins and needles the entire time," said Gary Goldberg, whose son Jacob participated on the Northview team. "I could not breathe the last three minutes."

After the game, Carlos said he was intimidated by Montpelier at the start of the game and felt proud because he and his teammates — all fifth-graders — beat a team with all sixth-graders.

"It feels good," he said. "We finally beat somebody that's higher than our level."

The Northview team featured Carlos, Jacob Goldberg and Isaiah Harrison and alternate fourth-graders Talon Hall and Brandon Vessels. It was sponsored by fourth-grade teachers Elizabeth Grove and Bruce Moffatt. The Montpelier team included Ashley, Kayla Brown, Huda Dawood and Josh Simon. The match-up airs March 15 to 21 on Comcast Cable Channel 96 and Verizon Channel 38.

E-mail Caitlin Moran at cmoran@gazette.net.