The Knights — who trailed 38-20 heading into the final play of last year’s third quarter — pulled off a stunning win with a 22-0 run while shutting out a Longhorn offense that had amassed 31 first-half points.

This time, West Field again came into the matchup 3-0 and tied atop the Region 5 standings, while Northridge was staring up from the basement with an 0-2 league record identical to the one it sported last fall.

There was no fairy tale ending this year. The Longhorns made sure of that, dominating from start to finish in a 43-7 decision.

“Going into the game, all the seniors, all the juniors from last year that didn’t get the dub, we took that to heart,” West Field senior Trevyn Thomas said. “We came out here and did what we do. Practice was locked in. Good dub. Feels good.”

West Field (5-2, 4-0 Region 5) followed a similar script to last year, building  26-0 first-half lead. This time around, it was the defense that carried most of the load.

The Longhorns forced four turnovers over the opening two periods, including a pair of pick-sixes.

Midway through the first period, Thomas recorded the first one. He anticipated a Liam Fresques swing pass, stepped in front and returned the interception 30 yards to paydirt for the game’s opening points.

“Everyday in film, (Northridge) would go out swing and they wouldn’t block anyone, so we had an auto check,” Thomas said about his interception. “I saw that auto check, read it, the rest is history.

“That is my first pick-six ever. I had a pick last week, but this was way better.”

Things went from bad to worse for the Knights (2-5, 0-3) after that, only mustering 40 yards of total offense in the first half.

In the second period, Thomas pounced on a Northridge fumble, which led to a 32-yard Jaxon Hart field goal. Hart tacked on a 26-yard field goal a few minutes later to put the Longhorns up 12-0.

Then, West Field dealt what felt like the finishing blows. Phoenix Sandoval returned another interception for a touchdown before Gavin Ortegon picked off the next Fresques pass as well. The Longhorns cashed it in for another touchdown when Caden Judy took a 10-yard Easton Eilertson pass into the end zone.

Despite the sizable halftime advantage, West Field wasn’t taking anything for granted.

“We were like, ‘Don’t get over our heads,'” Thomas said about the halftime message. “We know what happened last year. We were up pretty much the same amount. Keep the foot on the gas, go get more (touchdowns), go get more turnovers, and that’s what we did.”

Kolt Abbott’s two touchdown receptions from Eilertson highlighted the second half. A 6-yarder on the Longhorns’ opening possession made it 33-0, and duo synced up again on a 74-yard pass play to bump the score to 40-0 and trigger a running clock.

Freshman Boston Wright replaced Fresques in the second half and got the Knights into the end zone early in the fourth quarter. He tossed a 15-yard scoring pass to Jantson Willie to snap the shutout.

The Longhorns next play Layton in a non-league game before closing with Fremont and Box Elder as the trio atop the standings will battle for Region 5 in the final weeks.

West Field controls its own fate in a quest for the region title and hopes to avoid last year’s closing results.

That unlikely Northridge victory 364 days ago ultimately spurred them to a 3-3 region record, which ended up tying the Knights with the Longhorns in the final standings after West Field got beaten up by the Silverwolves and Bees down the stretch by a combined score of 104-15.

“We’ve definitely got to put in the work. We have three really good teams, so we gotta keep this momentum in the next three weeks,” Thomas said.

After opening region play against the current league leaders, Northridge gets a reprieve to close the regular season, playing against the bottom half of the standings. That begins with Roy next week.