Facing a potent West Field offense that had already hung 38 points on the scoreboard, and picking the Knights’ defense apart while doing it, Northridge faced a choice with its season all but hanging in the balance: Look ahead to its final three games against the bottom half of the Region 5 standings (Roy, Bonneville and Clearfield) or stick around and see this one through.

The Knights chose the latter.

In one of those implausible victories that they’ll reminisce about at their 30-year reunion, the Knights punished the Longhorn defense down the stretch, scoring 23 unanswered points to flip a 38-19 deficit into a 42-38 triumph.

“I’m a little tired,” Northridge’s two-way player Makai So’o said. “We just had to really come together and take out those penalties that we were getting on ourselves, just take it play-by-play, get 4 yards per play. We just drove it down their throats and delivered it into the end zone when we needed to.”

As effective as the offense was over the final 14 minutes of the game, the Northridge defense provided it with opportunities.

Northridge (2-4, 1-2 Region 5) pulled to within 38-27 on the final play of the third quarter when quarterback Grant Slater lofted a pass into the end zone that Dontae Dyson hauled in after outleaping the West Field defender.

The Knights then kept chipping away at the reeling Longhorns.

After forcing a West Field (5-2, 3-1) punt and a turnover on downs on successive possessions, Slater found a streaking So’o down the left sideline for a 36-yard TD with 5:59 to play to make it 38-35.

A suddenly ineffective Longhorn offense then went three-and-out, putting the Knights in position to tie the game or take the lead.

After all the effort it took to force their way back into the contest, it was paydirt or bust for Northridge.

Starting at its own 31 with 5:05 left and all the momentum on their side, the Knights commenced a 14-play march that seemed inevitable to finish anywhere other than the end zone. And with 65 ticks left on the clock, that’s exactly what happened when Slater connected with Dyson across the middle, who bulled his way across the goal line.

With a stable of capable wide receivers and sophomore quarterback Easton Eilertson — who came into the game with nearly 1,700 passing yards while tacking on another 270 or so in the first half — no one was counting the Longhorns out.

Eilertson connected on three quick strikes for 45 yards to move the ball to the Northridge 35 with 36 seconds left. But on second-and-10, Northridge’s Destin Smith stepped in front of Eilertson’s next offering — just the fourth interception of the year for the QB — to seal the game.

“On defense, we were bringing the heat and all of our (defensive backs) were locked in,” So’o said. “We were getting a lot of (pass breakups) and, I mean, all of our guys were just flying around.

“Our coach gave us a talk at halftime … it really hyped us up, talking about how we need to be more disciplined and how we need to work more as a team. It really brought us together in the end.”

On a night with a multitude of star performances, maybe none shone brighter than that of Northridge quarterback Grant Slater. The senior — with 16 career passing yards to his credit, according to MaxPreps — stepped in for injured starter Liam Fresques and had the game of his life with five touchdown passes in his first varsity start.

“His first time and he just really led the offense,” So’o said. “I gotta say he did a great job.”

On the first play of the game, Eilertson connected with Gavin Ortegon on a short slant. Ortegon took it 80 yards to the house to put the Longhorns up early, 7-0.

Led by the running of Seon Kuman, Northridge then countered on its first possession. Kuman capped the drive with a stumbling 33-yard run.

A 1-yard Caden Judy run put West Field back up, but the Knights took advantage of a fumbled punt to set up its next score, a 16-yard shuttle pass to Bannon Green. The extra point failed, leaving Northridge behind 14-13.

The next points came from the leg of West Field’s Taylor Scott, who connected on a 39-yard field goal, which preceded a scoring blitz to close the half.

Ortegon caught his second touchdown pass at the 4:15 mark of the second period and then, with just 46 seconds left, Phoenix Sandoval caught an 11-yard Eilertson toss on a rollout to give the Longhorns a significant 31-13 margin at the break.

“No doubt, at halftime our spirits were a little broken,” So’o said. “But coach Andrew Fresques — he’s a dog — gave us a message. His message was just powerful. It got me hyped. It gave me goosebumps and I just came out and I just felt like I was with my family.

“We came out that first drive and we knew that we needed to score. All our guys just did what they needed to do.”

As drawn up, the Knights took the second half kickoff straight down the field in 12 plays to close the deficit on a Slater to Roman Fitisemanu completion.

West Field got the points back late in the period when Sandoval caught his second TD pass of the evening to make it 38-19, setting the stage for the Northridge response.

“This is a big booster,” So’o said. “We’ve got to win out if we want a chance to get a good playoff seeding. We’ve got to go 1-0 next week and focus on our opponents.”

Northridge will next travel to Roy, while West Field will take a break from league play and host Layton.