With the win, the Redhawks captured their second straight Region 5 championship outright, repeating a perfect league log for the second straight year and claiming consecutive region crowns for the first time since 2001-02.

“Feels awesome. We’re not sharing it. We wanted it all for ourselves,” Bountiful senior quarterback Owen Geilman said. “We went out and got it.”

Geilman threw for one touchdown and ran for another as the Redhawks raced to a 14-3 lead early in the second quarter.

Senior running back Kenobi Doctolero tacked on a 2-yard rushing TD late in the period and Bountiful went to the locker room with a comfortable 21-3 advantage, but still had 24 minutes of football to close it out.

“Job wasn’t done. We would have liked to extend the lead a little more,” Geilman said. “We kind of killed ourselves with penalties (in the second half), but it was great to take control of the game at the half.”

The Redhawks (7-2, 5-0 Region 5) could only manage a fourth-quarter, 28-yard field goal by Landon Zayas that made it 24-3 with 9:42 left, but the defense filled in the gap for most of the second half.

“They played great. We have some guys out with injury, so a lot of guys stepped up in a big-time way. Defense had our back,” Geilman said. “We now have a couple of weeks off to heal up and get some guys back and get ready for the playoffs.”

Northridge (2-7, 0-5) then made things interesting with two touchdowns in the last seven minutes of the final frame, but it was too little, too late.

Junior quarterback Porter Olsen tossed a pair of touchdowns late into the night for the Knights, the first one a 37-yarder to Zach Smith, who left a pile of Redhawk defenders in his wake with 6:50 left to make it 24-10.

Bountiful punted on its ensuing possession and pinned Northridge at its own 4-yard line, but the Knights embarked on a 96-yard drive that ended with a 35-yard Olsen pass to Malikai Williams as time expired.

But their slow start in the first half eventually doomed the Knights.

“Defense battled, but the offense didn’t help them out; we didn’t capitalize on some opportunities. Hats off to Bountiful,” Northridge coach Andrew Fresques said. “They’re a tough team and made some really big stops on us, too. Give credit to them.”

Following a Bountiful fumble, Northridge drew first blood on a 30-yard field goal by Dawson Auger midway through the first quarter, claiming a brief 3-0 lead, but it was all Redhawks the rest of the half.

“We just went back to doing what we were planning on doing,” Geilman said. “We had a little setback early, but we had to go score a touchdown.”

After a great kickoff return, Bountiful took possession at the Northridge 25 and it took two plays and 46 seconds to grab the lead at 7-3 when Geilman connected with Faletau Satuala for a 25-yard touchdown pass at the 4:41 mark.

Geilman capped a 17-play, 81-yard drive on a 4-yard keeper in the second stanza as the lead grew to 14-3 with 7:17 left in the half.

Northridge went four plays and out, Bountiful took over near midfield and closed a 53-yard drive on a 2-yard run by Doctolero, going up 21-3 with 2:16 remaining in the first half.

The Knights then wasted a 12-play march deep into Bountiful territory, stalling out with four chances inside the 5 when the Redhawk defense stiffened. In retrospect, with the two late touchdowns, their failure to get points on that possession turned out to be big.

“That’s a huge turning point; we didn’t have any timeouts, so it made us one-dimensional,” Fresques lamented. “When you get that close on first down and don’t get in, that was a big shift change for them. Then we lose by one score.”