By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Niles' Samantha Brawley and Buchanan's Matt Dykema have been chosen as the Niles Daily Star Athletes of the Week for Sept. 6-10.
Brawley, a sophomore, was the overall girls' winner at the Centreville Invitational last Saturday, taking home the champion t-shirt for her time of 20:41.
Brawley continues to shine for the cross country team, bringing home first and second place honors at all of the Vikings meets so far this season.
Dykema, a junior, turned Buchanan's frowns upside down on Friday when he scored the tying touchdown against Cassopolis.
With heads hanging low on the Buck sideline, Dykema got Buchanan on the board with a 10-yard run.
The play of the game came on the ensuing kick off as Dykema took the ball and returned it to the three-yard line for an 85-yard return. Two plays later, Dan Toth punched it in from the one-yard line and also added the PAT run to close the Bucks to within six, 34-28.
On the game-winning drive, Dykema got the Bucks down to the 16 and a five-yard penalty pushed the ball to the 11.
Five plays later Dykema punched in the tying touchdown from the one-yard line with 1:58 to play. With the game tied at 34 senior kicker Jase Andrews kicked the winning PAT. The kick hit the left upright and bounced through for the 35-34 win.
Congratulations to this weeks Athletes of the Week!