Dragons slay tourney rival

October 18, 2011 at 12:05a.m.

Niles edges LaBrae 2-1, setting up rematch with Mooney

By Doug chapin

NILES

A year ago the Niles High boys soccer team put together an unexpected tournament run to the Division II district championship game, where the Red Dragons lost to Cardinal Mooney.

On Monday night Niles started the 2011 tournament on the right foot with a 2-1 victory over LaBrae at Bo Rein Stadium. But the Dragons now face Mooney on Thursday, two rounds earlier than a season ago.

Niles (6-9-2) came into Monday’s game on a five-game losing streak.

“We had a couple close ones and we had Lakeview at the end, Canfield, Fitch,” Niles coach Josh Macmillan said. “When it comes down to it I’d put our schedule on paper against anyone’s. I think eight of our 16 games are against D-1 schools.

“But the kids, regardless of how hard it is, believe that we get better throughout the year and then we just show up and see what happens. Our focus has not been on the conference or on our record but can we be at our very best at season’s end.”

After a fairly even scoreless first half, Niles got on the board first with 18:34 left in the game on a goal by C.J. Cicero off a feed from Chris Pack.

But 15 seconds later the Vikings (6-8-1) were awarded a penalty kick when a Niles defender was called for a hand ball after falling on the ball in the area. Jake Rutherford converted for LaBrae to knot the game.

Keir Macmillan then decided the issue at the 14:57 mark. He settled a loose ball off a corner kick and scored from about 15 yards out in front of the net.

“We were trying to maintain our defensive structure and keep it close,” LaBrae coach Steve Marsh said. “If we got down to the last five or six minutes and we were even, we were going to play for a win. We were going to move our sweeper [Greg Marsh] up. He definitely creates a lot of offense for us.

“We are very, very young. We have four seniors, three juniors and the rest are sophomores and freshmen. I’m proud of them, they played hard every night.”

The Dragons were in that dangerous situation of being the team playing the better game, but remaining in a tie game. Niles ended with a 20-8 edge in shots and a 4-0 edge in corner kicks.

“Marsh and Rutherford are two really, really good players and we told the guys at halftime that the longer the game goes scoreless, the more confident LaBrae would become,” Macmillan said. “It was really important that we scored first. If they [LaBrae] had the momentum they would have been riding an insane high.

“I think it [the penalty kick] actually woke us up a little more. After that goal we started moving the ball better, playing some through balls and doing some other things we should have been doing throughout the game.”

Noah Arvin recorded six saves in goal for Niles, while Nate Ball of LaBrae was credited with five saves.