Defense carried the Niles High School football team Friday to its first homecoming win in nine years as the Vikings beat Portage Northern, 28-14, in Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference West Division action.

The win snapped Niles’ three-game losing streak and improved the Vikings to 3-3 overall and 1-3 in the SMAC West Division. The Huskies fell to 3-3 overall and 1-3 in the West.

Niles’ defense limited Portage Northern to -16 yards rushing, recorded four interceptions and had three quarterback sacks for a -23 yards.

“(Our defense) has played well all year,” said Niles coach Dan Brawley. “We had some new guys in there tonight. Blaine Myers and Prescott Smith are smaller kids, but quicker kids.We thought that (Portage Northern) would have really tough time facing that and they sure did. Those kids were shooting the gaps and were all over the place. Those bigger kids from Northern had a heck of a time. Coach (Tony) Short came up with a heck of a scheme to keep their athletes at bay.”

Three of Niles’ interceptions led to touchdowns. Fritzel Findeisen’s touchdown on a 21-yard interception return gave the Vikings a 13-7 lead with 9:18 left in the second quarter. The Vikings lead grew to 15-7 after a 2-point conversion pass from Logan Harpenau to Ronnie Jones.

“(Portage Northern) was coming after (PAT’s),” Brawley said. “We saw that on tape. We were going to fake it.”

Niles added three more interceptions in the second half off of Portage Northern backup quarterback Jon Pincus. Huskies starting quarterback Troy Bitterle injured in his shoulder on the last play of the first half and didn’t return.

“(Bitterle) got dinged up last week so we knew if he took a couple hits (against Niles) that it was going to be a problem,” said Portage Northern coach Pete Schermerhorn. “(Niles) came after us and hit us. Jon Pincus is our second quarterback and he’s a quality quarterback. He was ready. He came in and did some good things and he needs to work on some things.”

Zachary Fillwock’s 18-yard interception return in the third quarter gave the Vikings a 1st-and-goal at the Huskies’ seven yard line. Two plays later, Brandon Partee scored on a five-yard run to give Niles a 21-7 lead with :58 left in the third quarter.

Niles soon added another turnover as Myles Busby returned an interception 34 yards to give the hosts a 1st-and-goal at Portage Northern’s one yard line to end the third quarter. Jones scored from a yard on the first play of the fourth quarter to give the Vikings a 28-7 lead.

“We just made some bad decisions,” Schermerhorn said. “If we’re going to win football games we can’t do that. Credit Niles. They made some good plays. They wouldn’t allow us to run the football and made us one dimensional.”

Findeisen had a second interception in the final minute of the game.

Offensively, Partee rushed for 128 yards on 20 carries. Partee was untouched up the middle on a 57-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. That score gave Niles a 7-0 lead with 7:03 left in the first quarter.

“He runs hard,” Brawley said about Partee. “The kid is hungry and a tough kid. It takes more than one guy to bring him down. He delivers a lot of shots offensively. We’re happy he’s on our side.”

The loss snaps a four-game Niles losing streak at the hands of Portage Northern. The last two years the Huskes outscored the Vikings, 106-24.

“Last week (a 24-20 loss to Lakeshore) I think our offense said we can move the football,” Brawley said. “Defensively, we can play with anybody. With those two combinations, we can have a pretty good football team out here.”

Portage 7 0 0 7 – 14

Niles 7 8 6 7 – 28

N – Brandon Partee 57 run (Ryan Casey kick).

P – Sergio Jackson 4 run (Joe Livingston kick).

N – Fritzel Findeisen 21 interception return (Logan Harpenau pass to Ronnie Jones).

N – Partee 5 run (kick failed).

P – Ryan Smith 18 pass from Jon Pincus (Livingston kick).