BOUNTIFUL — It wasn’t the 79-point Week 5 spectacle from a year ago, but there was undoubtedly a heck of a lot more on the line this time around.

Once again, Viewmont and Northridge squared off as the regular season reached its midpoint.

Both squads came into last year’s contest 2-2 en route to subpar 4-7 campaigns.

Back then, the Knights used a late Jaxon Fresques kickoff return touchdown to pull away with a 44-35 win after the Vikings had narrowed the deficit to two on the previous play.

Heading into the rematch, each team flaunted uncommon 4-0 marks, territory that Northridge hadn’t sniffed since 2012 and a place Viewmont hadn’t visited for even longer (2006).

So, it was somewhat surprising when halftime arrived with a modest 17 points on the scoreboard.

Although Northridge controlled the game all night, they weren’t really in control until Makai So’o returned an interception for a touchdown with 20 seconds left to give the Knights a 24-13 victory in the battle of unbeatens.

“(This game) means a lot,” Northridge junior Dontae Dyson said. “It helps out our rankings and stuff.

“Nobody really believed in us, but we just believed in ourselves, so that was all we needed to win this game.”

Although it only had 10 points to show for it — which included a Tre Nye to Chase Harris 22-yard score and a 32-yard Kaleb Gould field goal — Northridge put on a ball-control clinic in the first half. The Knights maintained possession for nearly 19 of the first 24 minutes while keeping the potent Viking offense sidelined.

During that span, Northridge racked up 228 yards of offense — including 94 on the ground from Andrew Ortiz — while Viewmont amassed only 37.

The Vikings entered the contest averaging more than 40 points per outing but could only muster a 90-yard Jordan Jones kickoff return for a touchdown before the break.

“The first half, they barely had any offensive plays so it was nice to have a little bit of rest,” Dyson said. “But our offense did a great job of controlling the possession of time. We’ve just got to work on finishing in the red zone, but other than that it was great.”

With the Viewmont offense hoping to settle in after receiving the second-half kickoff, things once again did not go according to plan.

An unplanned pooch kickoff hit the ground near the Viking 20. With everyone else watching, Northridge’s Tayven Norvang swooped in to secure the loose ball, giving the Knights a red zone possession.

“That wasn’t intentional,” Dyson said. “We did not plan that. He kind of miskicked it and our ‘D’ just ran down there and got it super fast. Got lucky, I guess, so it was a good play.”

Three plays later, Dyson was in the end zone on a 16-yard reception to put Northridge up 17-7.

Northridge special teams repeatedly pinned the Vikings deep in their own territory. All nine Viewmont possessions started inside its own 17, four of which were inside the 8.

The Knights had opportunities but were unable to put the game out of reach, which set the stage for a precarious situation in the final two minutes.

Starting at their 1-yard line, the Vikings finally strung a drive together and pulled to within 17-13 on a Kingston Mickens reception from Titan Longson with 1:14 left.

The ensuing onside kick appeared to be recovered by Viewmont, but an illegal touching penalty gave the Knights possession.

The Vikings burned all three of their timeouts and got the ball back with 20 ticks left, leading to So’o’s pick-six.

“(The game plan) was that they threw a bunch of deep balls, so just to play deep and not let anyone behind us,” Dyson said. “When we were watching film, that was basically what we saw, so we figured if we took that out of the game then they didn’t really have anything.”

Ortiz finished with 120 yards on 25 carries to lead Northridge. Nye finished 12 of 23 for 191 yards and two touchdowns. Dyson had 60 receiving yards, Harris 50 and Fresques 44.