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 ope

See Full Page