Prep football: Efficient Northridge holds off Hunter to win 1st playoff game in 12 years
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- Northridge quarterback Trey Nye rears back to throw against Box Elder on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in Layton.
LAYTON — Northridge High’s football team possessed the ball for 16 minutes and 34 seconds of Friday’s 5A first-round playoff game against Hunter.
Put another way, that’s about 34.5% of the total time of possession.
The No. 10 Knights made all of it count, and needed to, in their 35-21 win over the No. 23 Wolverines (4-7).
Northridge (7-4) scored touchdowns on four of its five drives in the first half, and scored a TD on one of only two second-half drives; the non-TD drive was a kneeldown with 14 seconds left in the game.
It’s Northridge’s first playoff win, and first home playoff game, since 2012.
“I was telling them in March, this group’s going to do some things that haven’t been done here at Northridge in a long time, you know, over a decade. So this is something — I’m definitely very proud of these guys, but I’m not surprised at all,” Northridge coach Andrew Fresques said.
Tre Nye had arms and legs in all four first-half touchdowns, with two rushing scores and two passing TDs (one to Chase Harris, one to Dontae Dyson).
The Dyson TD pass was a 38-yarder just one play after Northridge’s Austin Quinn Bideaux recovered a fumbled Hunter snap.
Thanks to Northridge’s defense and special teams, its offense averaged a starting field position at its own 44-yard line in the first half. And behind running back Andrew Ortiz, plus an effective outside pass game, the offense glided in the first half.
“We were seeing a lot of different things, our running game obviously opened a lot up, Ortiz and our offensive line did a great job tonight,” Nye said.
Hunter, trailing 28-0, pulled off a Hail Mary at the end of the first half. Ammaron Fonua caught Isi Moungaafi’s pass and leaned across for a 42-yard touchdown.
The Wolverines received the second-half kickoff and embarked on a 14-play, 90-yard adventure that ended with a 1-yard touchdown plunge by Isaac Fonua. That cut the lead to 28-14.
Then Northridge got into third-and-16 on the next drive amid a tangible shift in vibes. A Hunter comeback looked increasingly probable until Nye rolled left and got Anthony Martinez for a 17-yard catch on the sideline.
Another gut-check moment came on fourth-and-8 a few plays later. Nye found Makai So’o for 22 yards on the right side.
“I see (Martinez), but just a little bit late, I throw it, he makes a great catch contested. The fourth-down conversion, I just saw their corner playing off and I know Makai has that (comeback) route on that play, and so I just liked it and threw it right to him,” Nye said.
A few play’s later, Dyson’s 2-yard TD run made it 35-14.
Hunter got its final touchdown on a nearly 10-minute drive with 19 plays, four dead-ball unsportsmanlike conduct calls (two on each team, with one Hunter player ejected) and four additional penalties.
Survive and advance is sometimes all one needs to say.
“We know the shoulda, coulda, woulda and they were some close games but now in the playoffs, it’s 0-0. (Being close to a) region championship, this and that, it doesn’t mean anything now, we gotta go 1-0 each week,” Fresques said.
The Knights missed a lot of chances in the regular season to be better than 3-4 in Region 5, but didn’t miss their chance Friday.
Next up is a road trip to No. 7 Maple Mountain (7-2) for a second-round game on Friday, Nov. 1.
