By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
Speed kills!
The Dowagiac varsity soccer team took advantage of its speed advantage against visiting Niles Wednesday afternoon to post a 4-0 victory in a Big-16 Conference West Division match.
It was a nice way for the Chieftains to rebound from its first loss of the season on Tuesday to St. Joseph.
Senior Ashley Caldwell scored a hat-trick to lead the Chieftains to their fourth victory of the season and second in West Division play.
Senior Danielle Boyd scored her 11th goal of the season to give Dowagiac the winning margin.
Boyd and Caldwell gave Dowagiac a 2-0 halftime lead on the Lady Vikings, who were missing their regular goalkeeper and lost another girl to an ashma attack during the first half.
Boyd scored her 11th goal of the season in the 11th minute to give the Chieftains a quick 1-0 lead.
Defense ruled most of the remainder of the first half, however, Caldwell made it 2-0 in the 29th minute off a pass from Boyd.
Caldwell was a one-person show in the second half as she twice out-ran the Niles defense to easily beat Niles keeper Jeni Pedzinski.
Other than Caldwell's two breakaways, the Chieftains and Lady Vikings spent much of the second half beating on each other trying to gain an advantage. The play got extremely physical in the second half forcing two yellow cards, one on each side.
Dowagiac outshot Niles 10-5 with Chieftain goalkeeper Stephanie Cooper making three saves. Pedzinski also had three saves.