High school football: Northridge keeps dream season alive with important Region 5 win

The Northridge Knights have created an unorthodox strategy for rebuilding their program to be as successful as it was 20 years ago.

In a battle of unbeatens, the Knights gave Viewmont a dose of their new program blueprint Friday night as Andrew Ortiz rushed for 112 yards and Northridge’s defense frustrated the Vikings all evening en route to a 24-13 win  in a Region 5 game.

Northridge never trailed and stayed tied with Roy in first place. In five games, the Knights have allowed just 67 points and the Viewmont High homecoming crowd saw an opposite type of game as last week, when the Vikings scored on nearly every second-half possession to edge rival Bountiful in overtime.

The outcome for this contest also wasn’t decided until late — with 20 seconds left — when Northridge quarterback Titan Longson’s third-down pass was intercepted by Makai So’o, who broke several tackles on a 28-yard return for a touchdown.

“I’ve said it all year. We play great team defense,” said Northridge coach Andrew Fresques. “We had a chance to put them away earlier but couldn’t finish drives. With our defense, though, we’re always in games.”

Fresques said his team’s changing secondary schemes kept Viewmont’s offense in check. Viewmont ran just 13 offensive plays in the first half — and netted only two first downs. Northridge led only 10-7, however, because Jordan Jones was able to thrill the crowd with a 91-yard kickoff return.

Northridge also pulled its own special teams surprise when Kaleb Gould opened the third quarter with a short “pooch” kickoff that fell between several Viewmont defenders at the 15-yard line and bounced high into the air, and senior Tayven Norvang leaped to grab it.

Three plays later, Trey Nye found Dontae Dyson on a 16-yard touchdown pass and momentum seemed to stay on that side of the stadium.

“That’s a good team over there, though,” Fresques said. “We knew they would come back and we had to be ready.”

Sure enough, the mishandled  kickoff motivated Viewmont (4-1, 1-1) and Longson finally started to move the ball. However, two long second-half drives were stopped on fourth-down plays and Northridge’s Israel Arocha ended another when he picked off an errant throw.

Viewmont got a respite from  its discouraging evening when Longson took advantage of a pass-interference penalty and completed long passes to Cache Tuia and Kingston Mickens to cut the lead to 17-13.

The Vikings got another chance, thanks to fine efforts by guys like 6-foot-3, 235-pound lineman Cooper Willoughby, who forced a punt that was downed at the 1-yard line.

With only 30 seconds left, Longson completed his first pass, but the next two dropped to the ground and So’o stepped in front of the final throw to end the threat.

A week after throwing for 303 yards, Longson completed just 16 of 35 passes for 191 yards. Mickens had seven catches for 76 yards.

Northridge QB Tre Nye was 8-of-17 for 103 yards but the Knights did not commit a turnover, another important factor that kept them one of 5A’s top teams so far.