Niles takes down South Range, 8-0, in league contest
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BEAVER TOWNSHIP -- Both Niles and South Range entered Monday's Northeast 8 Conference (NE8) match unbeaten, but only the Dragons emerged flawless.
Although the Raiders, who had already doubled their win total from last season, stayed close for most of the first half, Niles pulled away and extended its league unbeaten streak to 24 matches with an 8-0 victory in Beaver Township.
"Very slow start. We need to do a better job for the first 20 minutes of the game," Niles head coach Scott MacMillan said. "We didn't execute. They played hard. South Range [played] one of the hardest games I've seen them play. Their coach is doing a great job. Their keeper was outstanding. But we did not play efficient. And those are things we have to work on. We picked it up and then we started playing more simple and got into our rhythm."
The scoring began early for Niles.
Two and a half minutes after kickoff, Kherington Stanford capitalized on a Raiders defensive mistake and swiftly put the ball past South Range goalkeeper Lilah Angus for the first goal of the match.
The Red Dragons remained active albeit unsuccessful in adding to their lead for much of the next 25 minutes, as they suffered from multiple offsides calls and off-target shots toward the goal.
With 12:36 remaining in the first half, a few minutes after South Range had its best offensive opportunity thwarted by an offsides, Stanford finally extended the Niles lead with her second goal of the night. Exactly one minute later, Stanford completed the hat trick on a quick and efficient Dragons attack.
Stanford scored her and Niles' fourth goal with 1:39 to go in the half, when she lifted a long shot above Angus' hands and into the net. Madelyn Yost made it 5-0 with seconds to go before halftime by scoring on a penalty kick.
"Our midfield held the ball too long," MacMillan said of the scoring lull. "I pulled the strikers out and I told them what they were doing wrong. And then they fixed it. I moved Maddie. I started her in the back, and once I put her in the midfield, she and Taylor [Bickerstaff], Kherington and Naomi [Sheesley], they started getting their chemistry together."
Stanford scored her fifth and final goal of the night more than 12 minutes into the second half, making it 6-0 and triggering a running clock. Sheesley and Yost also scored once in the second half, with Yost's second goal coming on another penalty kick.
South Range (4-1-1) returns to action Thursday at Hubbard as the Raiders try to add to their win total, which is already twice that of last season, when they went 2-15-1.
"[We want] to continue connecting, stay interconnected and for them to keep playing as a team," South Range coach Nina Carolyne said. "They're playing synchronized way more than they did last year. That is also the mental resilience like I said, and they're playing as a unit."
With the win Monday, Niles improved to 4-0 on the season and 3-0 in NE8 play. The Dragons, who have not lost a regular season game since September 2024, host Girard on Thursday. The Indians were the only team in the NE8 to draw with Niles last season.
"I don't think they're thinking about last year," MacMillan said of the draw with Girard. "We have a heavy senior-laden team, and their focus is to get to the playoffs, the tournament and do well. I don't think that game is in their brain at all, Maybe it should be, but it's not. We don't practice like that. We'll watch film on them and study it and come up with a game plan. But the bottom line is to get better every game. It's not about how we win. We have to get better every game. It's just the culture that they have to bring. Like today, they were slow, so they'll run a little bit tomorrow."