Staff photo / Brian Yauger Niles senior Brennan Hodge eyes home plate from third base during Friday’s game against Brookfield.

NILES — Going into Friday’s game, both Niles and Brookfield were looking for their first win of the season.

It took some late-game heroics, but Brennen Hodge’s seventh-inning single scored Mason Burns, and the Red Dragons walked off with their first win, downing the Warriors, 8-7.

“Feels good to get the monkey off our back,” Niles coach Joe Toth said. “Hopefully it kind of settled these guys down. You could see it. They were getting anxious about getting that first win, so hopefully this kind of calms everybody’s nerves. We battled. It was kind of a rough game, but we kept working, we kept fighting, and then we came through in the clutch.”

Burns knotted the game at seven in the bottom of the seventh with a deep triple to right field. With a chance to end the game and put his team in the win column for the first time, Toth kept things simple.

“I told Brennen Hodge, ‘Get (the) job done. I’m rooting for you,’ And he did,” Toth said. “Our runner at third base, I told him, ‘Anything up in the air towards the outfield, we’re tagging and coming through.'”

A crack of thunder stalled the game for 30 minutes partway through the fourth inning. Luckily, the rain held off, and the only cracks heard for the rest of the game were from the bats of both teams. Delayed at 2-2, both teams strung together runs when the game resumed.

The fifth and sixth innings belonged to Brookfield.

A bunt down the third-base line by Blake Hammond got things started in the fifth and the Warriors kept moving runners around. They tacked on six runs in those two innings.

Trailing 7-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Niles needed to push back, and it just kept chipping away.

Freshman Vincent Dennis hit a two-run double in the sixth, and Burns hit a single in the seventh to score Anthony Mymo. Burns’ hit set the stage for Hodge’s game-winner.

The Warriors sit at 0-3 after the loss. Each of their three losses have come by just one run.

But there’s plenty to be confident about. Brookfield coach Brendan Matig thinks his team is capable of turning some heads.

“It’s another close loss, it’s our third-straight loss by one run. It’s absolutely brutal,” Matig said. “They just need to focus on grinding and working hard. We’re gonna turn the corner. It hasn’t happened yet, but we’re gonna turn the corner. When we turn the corner, people are gonna start to take notice.”

The Warriors are set to take on Champion on Monday.

Niles is scheduled to face Mineral Ridge on Wednesday. Picking up a win right before a small break in the action has the Red Dragons excited.

“We’ve got a few days off, but hopefully that rest will kind of rejuvenate us a little bit now,” Toth said.