By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
NILES – In district soccer action at Niles High School Monday afternoon, visiting Vicksburg eliminated the Vikings 2-0.
The loss ends the season for Niles with a 7-11-1 record.
The Bulldog's scored their first goal in the 13th minute on a breakaway by Jon Cannell and hit the insurance goal in the 38th minute of the first half off a header by Tucker Callanan on a Vicksburg corner kick. That is all the scoring that would be needed as the 19-2 Bulldogs were able to the control the ball and limited the Vikings shots on goal as Matthew Roberts made the saves to preserve the shutout.
"I'll give credit to Vicksburg they are 19-2 for a reason," Jerry Holtgren, Niles coach said after the loss. "That is the second best team I've seen. It was more them then us. We weren't able to work the ball, to posses the ball and a lot of that was their talent."
As the game progressed the Vikings were able to work their offense.
"We got stronger as the game wore on and we started to put some combinations together and started to apply some pressure," Holtgren said. "I'm just real proud of the way these kids played. That was one of the best teams around and the kids didn't give up and they fought and fought and gave all they had for 80 minutes. As a coach that's all you can ask. I was happy with their performance but disappointed with the loss."