NILES —Four first half goals made it obvious that the Niles soccer team would continue its season Wednesday night in St. Joseph.

The Vikings opened up the Division 2 District Soccer Tournament with a 6-0 win over visiting Three Rivers Monday night.

Niles senior Cicone Palmore had a hat trick for the Vikings, who dominated the match, just as they had done in an earlier 8-0 victory over the Wildcats.

Palmore had half of the Niles first half goals.

After Stuarter Coulston staked the Vikings to a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute, Palamore followed that up with the first of his three goals in the 19th minute to make it 2-0. Coulton’s goal came on a shot from nearly midfield and the ball took a bounce past the Three Rivers keeper and into the net.

“If you put enough pressure on the goal, things like that are going to happen,” Niles coach Jerry Holtgren said. “Especially when the field is as hard as asphalt. They actually have four foreign exchange students from the last time we played them, so they were a different team. But we had success really working it out wide, and our guys are finally starting to carry it down the line and play that ball down the middle. That’s were we found success, spreading them out a little bit.”

Just four minutes later, Palamore scored again off an assist from Oliver Rodrigues.

The final goal of the opening 40 minutes was scored three minute later when Christian Rackley dented the back of the net to make it 4-0.

While the goals were fewer and farther between in the second half, Niles still dominated play. The Vikings’ defense didn’t give Three Rivers much space to work in and ended the match allowing just two shots on goalkeeper Ryan Casey.

“Our defense has been playing well all year,” Holtgren said. “We are going to make our defense do there job, and we are going to start applying more pressure up the wings and up top so we can start scoring a little more. They are doing their job like they have all year, and the forwards are going to try and make things a little more exciting.”

At the other end of the pitch, Wildcats’ keeper Andrew Adams was facing a bevy of shots as the Vikings finished with 22 attempts.

Adams came up with 11 saves in the contest.

Graham Hoppstock, who had an assist on Palmore’s first goal, took a pass from Cole Allison and scored in the 42nd minute as Niles increased its advantage to 5-0.

Palmore completed the hat trick in the 73rd minute to cap the scoring.

“He had a good game,” Holtgren said.

Niles will now face either St. Joseph or Vicksburg in the second semifinal Wednesday at Dickenson Stadium. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Three Rivers…0

Niles…6

Halftime score

Niles 4, Three Rivers 0

First half

N – Stuart Coulston 17th minute

N – Cicone Palmore 19th minute (Graham Hoppstock assist)

N – Palmore 23rd (Oliver Rodrigues assist)

N – Christian Rackley 26th minute

Second half

N – Hoppstock 42nd minute (Cole Allison assist)

N – Palmore 73rd minute

Shots on goal

Three Rivers 2

Niles 22

Saves

Three Rivers 11 (Andrew Adams)

Niles 2 (Ryan Casey)

Corner kicks

Three Rivers 1

Niles 5