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Whether it's in sports, academics, or the arts, rivalries between public and private high schools are ones for the ages.

One such continued Tuesday as Laurel High School squared off against St. Vincent Pallotti High School in a Laurel city trivia game at the Laurel Municipal Center, with Pallotti prevailing 79-43.

The trivia game, part of Laurel's Maryland Municipal Works Month festivities, was the second such contest between the two cross-town rivals. LHS won the inaugural match four years ago.

"We lost last time, so we had to make up for ourselves," Pallotti sophomore and College Park resident Paul Nycz, 15, said.

Each six-player team had 30 seconds to answer a question and received five points for each correct response. A team secured three points for correctly answering questions its opponent could not.

Pride and a trophy were on the line.

"The winner of this event will take the trophy and have it on display at their school along with bragging rights until next year at this time," said City Council Clerk Kim Rau, chairwoman of the Municipal Government Works Committee

Rau said the purpose of the event was to educate people about municipal government.

Question subjects ranged from addresses of buildings, to mayoral and City Council term lengths to where residents can rent paddle boats.

Although Laurel had a senior-laden squad – five of its six players were seniors, Pallotti relied on its youth to prevail.

Laurel High senior Hector Moralez, 17, said the team went on the city's Web site for study materials, and were even studying on the van ride over.

"A lot of them weren't difficult, just common sense questions," senior Alejandra Colindres, 17, said.

Although they lost, the Laurel students said they were happy to get out of school for the event.

"I'll come back for revenge," sophomore Kristen Young, 15, said with a laugh.

Participants from Pallotti were students in Jerry Connolly's honors American Government class. Connolly said that students in the class are required participate in the event.

They said they had been studying since last week, and even received resident information packages.

"It was a great experience to win," said junior Paolo Perez-Howard, 15, the only Laurel resident on Pallotti's team.

"It was fun to get both schools together," Mike Lhotsky, director of Parks and Recreation, said. "They're pillars of the community."

The city of Laurel is part of the Maryland Municipal League, which "works to strengthen the role and capacity of municipal government through research, legislation, technical assistance, training and the dissemination of information for its members," its Web site says.

City staff sent letters to each high school last month inviting and asking for a handful of students to participate. The only study tip provided was that questions would be based on material on the city's Web site.

Rau said she plans to make the event an annual competition.

E-Mail Timmy Gelles at tgelles@gazette.net.