The kick would’ve given the No. 8 Titans a crucial 31-28 lead in their playoff game against No. 9 Westlake.

Orton didn’t have to wonder for very long if he would get another chance.

With 2.3 seconds left, and still with the game tied 28-28, Orton nailed a 36-yard field goal that sent the Titans past Westlake and into the 6A quarterfinals with a 31-28 win.

“I was just thinking about celebrating with my boys after, I knew I was gonna hit it. I just needed to go all the way through it,” Orton said. “(The first kick) just wasn’t really a clean kick, it was kinda just lazy by me. But I came back, hit that second one and it was straight.”

Syracuse trailed 28-21 at halftime, a result of brilliant play by Westlake quarterback Bosten Fountaine and receivers Slone Su’a and Malik Sika.

But in the second half, Syracuse’s defense held the Thunder to zero points.

“In the first half, (Fountaine) was scrambling around, hucking it up. My message at halftime was just, ‘Guys, we’re in the right places, the game plan is working, they’re making more plays than us. We now need to make a play,'” Titans head coach Mitch Tulane said.

Before Friday’s home playoff game, Syracuse (7-3) hadn’t played since Oct. 9 in its Region 1 finale against Farmington.

As to whether the 22-day break validated the “rust” or “rest” concept, it was “rest.”

“That Farmington game, I just don’t think that we played our best football, and had a bad taste in our mouth for three weeks now, and it’s good to finally get out here and play well against a good football team,” Tulane said.

Kao Prom scored on a 7-yard touchdown run on the Titans’ first drive, answering Westlake’s 15-play touchdown drive to open the game. The next drive, quarterback Ledger Wight rolled out and threw a touchdown pass to Ryker Van Komen for a 14-7 lead.

Wight threw a pick that gave Westlake (7-4) the ball in the red zone and, two plays later, the game was tied on a high-arcing TD catch by Sika, who entered the night as the fourth-leading receiver in the state.

Two plays later, Wight ran 68 yards to the house for a 21-14 lead.

The game quickly threatened to go south for Syracuse, though. Sika caught a wide-open touchdown pass (21-21), followed two plays later by a Syracuse fumble and Westlake recovery, and followed shortly thereafter by Mason Tapusoa’s 1-yard TD plunge that put the Thunder up 28-21 at halftime.

Westlake had run 49 plays in the first half to Syracuse’s 22, and had a 2-0 turnover advantage.

But in the second half, Syracuse limited the Thunder to just three offensive possessions, which ended with a three-and-out, a turnover on downs, and a crucial interception by Syracuse’s Kaleb Hall with 6:07 left that gave Syracuse the ball back after Orton’s missed field goal.

Wight and Van Komen have provided the lion’s share of rushing yardage for Syracuse all year, and did so again Friday. Van Komen scored the game-tying touchdown late in the third quarter to set up the dramatic fourth.

The second crucial run in the second half came on fourth-and-1 at the Westlake 27-yard line with less than a minute left in a tie game.

Tulane didn’t want to give Westlake the ball back, so the Titans went for it on fourth down, and converted when Wight picked up 6 yards on a naked bootleg. They let the clock run all the way down to 2.3 seconds, called timeout and brought out Orton.

The ensuing 36-yard kick would’ve been good from 50 yards, and his teammates mobbed Orton to celebrate the victory.

The win broke Syracuse’s four-game postseason losing streak; all four losses had come by single digits.

Next week, the Titans head to No. 1 Corner Canyon (9-1) for their quarterfinal matchup.