The Niles JV football team defeated visiting Mattawan 30-18 Thursday night.

Darek Bullock-Mills rushed for 149 yard and scored three touchdowns, including a 90-yard kickoff return, to lead the Vikings offensively.

Niles also got 85 yards from Michael Farmer.

“A very strange and tough night,” Niles coach Josh Bourne said. “I am not sure if in the short number of years that I have been coaching I have ever seen a team so focused before the start of a game. There was just an air of determination prior to taking the field tonight. It wasn’t our best week of preparation but it just felt as if our players were set on getting their first win.

“It did not come easy as we have came to expect this season. The game was really a tale of two halves. In the first half it seemed as if we couldn’t do anything wrong on offense and defense. I believe we shocked Mattawan a bit with how tough we came out. Offensively, we marched the ball down the field with tough runs and big plays on the legs of Darek and Michael.”

Manny Edwards led the team with 10 tackles, six assists and one interception. Bostin Hand had eight tackles, along with seven tackles and two assists from Farmear. Jason Taylor had five tackles and six assists, while Bullock-Mills finished with two tackles, three assists and two interceptions.

“Defensively, we came up and tackled at the line where a week ago we sat back and caught,” Bourne said. “The first half was impressive. The second half was a different story. Our 10-point lead was reduced to four on a couple of occasions. We must have had over 100 yards of penalties in the second half alone. It is very obvious that we have done a bad job preparing our players physically for four quarters of football. Mattawan was the much more physical team in the third and fourth.”

Niles will travel to Kalamazoo Thursday night to face Kalamazoo Central.