The Warriors scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to send the bout to overtime, then pushed ahead by adding a TD on the first play of the extra session from the 25-yard line.

But it wasn’t quite enough.

Westlake countered with a score of its own, on a 14-yard pass from Calvin Gagon to Caleb Isaksen, and decided to go for two points and the win.

Running back Derek Anderson emerged from a pile on a stack play the Warriors had seen earlier — and couldn’t stop — and plowed into the end zone, giving the Thunder a booming, 22-21 non-region victory.

“It looked like for a second we had it bottled up, and he just kind of squirted out. We kind of got excited; just couldn’t wrap him up,” Weber coach Jayson Anderson said. “You gotta credit both teams. They battled to the very end. They just made some bigger plays at different times and we missed some opportunities.”

Quarterback Crew Cacciacarne threw three touchdown passes in his first start for the Warriors, the first two tosses highly contested where the Weber receivers simply took it away from the defense.

“We have so many guys who can go do it. Sal (Moa), Braylon (Parker), Ian Elmore, T (Tyson) Higgs; and our tight ends are phenomenal as well,” Cacciacarne said. “They worked hard in the off-season. Training, consistent. Worked their tails off.”

Weber trailed 14-7 in the fourth quarter when it embarked on a 13-play, 75-yard drive that took more than 4 minutes. The journey ended when Cacciacarne found Elmore just inside the in-bounds marker for a 27-yard touchdown pass with 4:47 to play.

“It was just a great one-on-one ball from Ian; I just trust my guys to go in,” Cacciacarne said.

Coach Anderson elected to go for the tie and kicker Alex Johnson split the uprights, making it 14-all and sending it to overtime.

But not without some late-game heroics. Westlake punted and Weber set up for a game-winning drive that ended in an interception.

The Thunder milked the clock down to three seconds to set up for a game-winning field goal, which Nakosi Swain blocked for the Warriors as the clock struck 0:00.

Weber got the ball first in overtime and Cacciacarne found a wide-open Parker in the corner of the endzone. Johnson’s PAT gave the Warriors a 21-14 edge.

“We ran a little wheel with a post. The way they had been playing all night on Sal, the corner bit and the wheel was wide open,” Cacciacarne said. “We were dialing that up all game. Just waiting for the perfect time to use it.”

The Warriors just needed one more big play that could have made the difference — not discounting three interceptions on the night, one each by Elmore, Dyson Parker and Braylon Parker.

“We had our opportunities. Early, we could have helped ourselves out a little bit. We got some key takeaways at some key moments that set us up,” Anderson said. We just need to do a better job of being consistent and moving the football.”

Westlake scored on its second possession of the game via a 12-yard run by Landon Rasmussen at the 7:37 mark of the first quarter.

It only took 1 minute, 6 seconds for the Warriors to respond and take the lead. Starting in a hole at their own 16 after a penalty, Cacciacarne connected with receiver Moa for a 42-yard gain into Thunder territory on the first play from scrimmage.

Two plays later, Higgs outbattled a Westlake defensive back at the goal line to haul in a 43-yard touchdown pass from Cacciacarne and Alex Johnson tacked on the extra point, as the Warriors went up 7-6.

The Thunder opened the second stanza on a 3-yard plunge on the stack play by Derek Anderson, and a two-point conversion gave them the lead at 14-7, with 9:12 left in the half, capping a 10-play drive and setting up the second half and overtime gut-wrencher.

Cacciacarne transferred to Weber from Layton this year and won the starting quarterback job.

“I felt pretty relaxed, comfortable with the coaching staff. They did a really good job settling me down and stuff,” Cacciacarne added.

Jayson Anderson did his best to put a positive spin on a disappointing outcome.

“More than anything, we’ve got to get off the field in critical situations,” Anderson said. “Tip your hat to them. They came out on top; kind of how the cookie crumbles.”