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STEVENSVILLE — When the going got tough, Brandon Walsh got going.

The Niles sophomore scored two second-half touchdowns that proved to be the difference in a 16-0 win over Lakeshore Friday night, the school’s first-ever win at Lakeshore.

“We came out in the second half and took it to them,” said Niles Head Coach Scot Shaw. “We’re physical enough that we wear teams out – I think we wore them down in the second half. We executed a little bit – we made too many mistakes offensively but we’re happy with the shut-out.”

The two teams first faced off against each other in 1993 and have played each other every year since, except for the 2021 and 2022 seasons. Lakeshore holds a 28-5 edge in the all-time series, with Niles winning the last two matchups.

The game was tied 0-0 at halftime, in part because of four Niles turnovers forced by Lakeshore’s defense. The Lancers recovered three Niles fumbles and intercepted a pass to help the team stay in the game.

“I’m so proud [of the team],” said Lakeshore head coach Danny Thompson. “I don’t think anybody gave us a chance. We talked to our kids about not letting outside noise get in their way and they stepped up tonight. I’m not happy with the score, obviously – you never like to lose, but I can’t tell you how happy I am with my team and how they fought. They just fought their butts off.”

With 2:35 remaining in the third quarter, Walsh punched in a two-yard touchdown run and converted the two-point conversion to give the Vikings a 8-0 lead. With 4:51 remaining In the game, Walsh found the end zone again on a 41-yard score and scored the two-point conversion to seal the deal for the Vikings.

“You think he’s down and then all of a sudden you see him quirt out and he’s still going,” Shaw said of Walsh. “He has a lot of power, he’s hard to take down and he just made some great runs.”

The Vikings outgained the Lancers 296-52 in total yards, including a Niles 266-29 edge in rushing yards. Niles totaled 18 first downs compared to Lakeshore’s two. Tristan Williams had eight carries for 28 yards to lead Lakeshore and quarterback Eli Wheaton completed 3 of 9 passes for 23 yards.

Niles quarterback Will Turnbull completed 4 of 7 passes for 30 yards and one interception. Elijah Norris had 126 yards on 23 carries and Alex Anderson had eight carries for 48 yards while Walsh had 88 on 12 carries and his two scores.

On defense, Chayce Quinn, Bradley Wolverton, Jayelin Vawter, RJ Fiedler and Ward Cheney tallied three tackles each for Niles. Derek Petzke had 14 total tackles for Lakeshore and Drew Scholten, Kaden Griffiths totaled 13 and 12 tackles respectively and Wyatt Florian hauled in an interception.

While the loss was disappointing, Thompson was pleased with his team’s effort against a strong Niles team and saw the game as a building block the team will use going forward.

“You look at their offense and they’re good at what they do,” Thompson said. “They’re great up front, they just came off of an appearance in the state championship and I think their roster is better this year than they were last year. The thing is when you’re the underdog, nobody believes in you and you have to believe in yourself. I think what we saw today, we saw that if we play Lancer football, then we can play with anybody. It’s going to be a building block for us.

“We’ll lick our wounds – our kids battled and their hurt – so I’m gonna give them the day off tomorrow and Sunday and we’re gonna come back Monday with a game plan. We’ve got another tough one with Portage Central coming.”