Staff photo / R. Michael Semple. Howland’s Delmar Cox (28) chases down Niles’ Joey Lehman during the first half of the Tigers’ win in Niles on Thursday.

NILES — Niles came into Thursday’s season opener looking for revenge after last year’s shutout defeat to Howland. But the Tigers had other plans.

Howland overcame three turnovers and seven penalties to escape Bo Rein Stadium with a 10-8 victory over the rival Red Dragons.

“It was very sloppy tonight,” Tigers head coach Brian Jones said. “We knew coming in that for a lot of guys, this is their first varsity experience. We just had that next-play mentality for our guys. We knew there were going to be some mistakes. But we told them to play hard. We were able to get into the locker room and regroup a little bit. Still wasn’t as clean as we wanted in the second half, but sometimes you’re going to have to grind through games, and they overcame that.”

After Niles went three-and-out on its opening possession, Howland took advantage of a short field and drove into the shadow of the goal line.

But a mishandled handoff led to a fumble, which was recovered by Niles’ Jaden Burnett near the 6-yard line. From there, the Red Dragons got their offense going.

Sophomore quarterback Joey Lehman drove Niles 94 yards for the game’s first touchdown, which he ran in himself from five yards out. Nikolas Cvengros had a 38-yard run during the drive that helped set up Lehman’s score. A Howland penalty allowed Niles to go for two, and Lehman piled in to put the Dragons up 8-0.

After that, the mistakes continued to mount for the Tigers. Howland had five penalties for more than 50 yards, and quarterback Darren Douglas threw an interception to Niles’ Vinny Broll for the Tigers’ second turnover of the half.

Still, even after all the errors, Niles wasn’t able to capitalize in the first half, and Howland remained within striking distance.

“We took advantage of one (mistake), but we had opportunities and then made our own mistakes like with the punt snap, and they get that touchdown with five seconds left in the half,” Niles head coach Jim Parry said. “We told our kids this week, a lot of games are lost more than won. I think tonight it was a sloppy game one, and I think Howland would agree with that, and you just can’t do that, especially against your rival.”

After returning a punt into plus territory with just over a minute left in the second quarter, Howland drove 46 yards for its first score of the season, as Douglas hit Carter Nielsen on a 4-yard touchdown strike with just five seconds left in the opening half. The Tigers went for two, and Davae Honzu bullied his way across the goal line to tie things up 8-8 heading into the break.

Both offenses struggled to find much rhythm in the second half.

Howland had another turnover on its first drive of the third quarter — a Douglas interception picked off by Niles’ Mason Burns, while the Red Dragons had difficulty moving the ball across midfield.

After giving up that long early touchdown drive, the Tigers’ defense had settled in and was able to stifle Niles’ offensive attack.

“Tip the cap to the defensive staff,” Jones said. “They saw some things that Niles was exploiting early there, and we made a couple adjustments. Our guys up front did a nice job adjusting, getting to the ball and making sure that guys were getting down to the ground.”

Howland’s defense did it again in the final minutes, sacking Lehman twice deep in Niles territory and forcing the Red Dragons to punt out of their own endzone.

However, Nielsen found an open lane and was able to block Niles’ punt out of the back of the end zone for the game-winning safety with just about two minutes left. The Tigers recovered Niles’ ensuing onside kick and were able to run out the clock to secure the season-opening victory.

“Obviously, when you’re backed up like that, you pick your poison,” Jones said. “You either come after it or you ensure the kick. Carter is one of those athletes. He wasn’t unblocked, and he just made a play, and that’s what you expect. You want your playmakers to make a play when that’s needed, whether that’s offense, defense or special teams.”

With a young team, Parry wasn’t discouraged and admired the tenacity his team showed throughout the evening, telling them as much in their postgame huddle.

“We had a lot of adversity, some tonight, some early in the week when we lost some kids to injury,” Parry said. “I’m just super proud of the fact that we were able to hang in there. Obviously, we made some mistakes, but if you can play with effort like that, then I think good things are going to come.”