(St. Joseph) – St. Joe's defense forced a pair of Niles fumbles inside the 4 yard line, while the Bears offense powered their way and wore out the Vikings defense in St. Joe's 30-7 win to open the 2024 season.

St. Joe kicked off the open the game and Niles made it down inside the St. Joe 10, but Vikings QB Talen Bennet fumbled the ball at the Bears 3 yard line, which was then recovered by the Bears.

After trading a few possesions, a bad snap on a St. Joe punt gave Niles the ball at the Bears 10 yard line, which turned into the opening score of the game on a 4 yard TD pass from Bennett to Brenden Olsen and a 7-0 Niles lead.

St. Joe didn't allow the lead to stand for long as the Bears drove down 80 yards on 15 plays to tie the game on a 12 yard touchdown run from Charlie Halsted.

Niles would miss a 37 yard field goal wide right on their next possesion. which St. Joe coverted into another touchdown drive, this one went 80 yards on 12 plays on Dylan Chapman's 7 yard run, and with the PAT St. Joe had a 14-7 lead, which was the score at the half.

St. Joe got the opening kickoff to start the second half. and thanks to a 74 yard return by Blayke Sicurello to the Niles 23, the Bears had a very short field to work with. The Bears drove down to the 1 yard line before Chapman scored his second touchdown of the night, an injury to Bears kicker Rusty Klaer forced the Bears to go for 2, which was convered on a pass from Davis Crossman to Nate Schmidt for a 22-7 lead.

The Vikings, who have not won a game at Dickinston Stadium since 2005 went 3 and out of their next drive. Which again was converted into a Bears touchdown. Charlie Halsted scored on a 9 yard run and Chapman's 2 point conversion increased the Bears lead to 30-7.

Niles would start the final quarter with the ball and went on a long 14 play drive, using 8:20, but was stopped at the Bears 2 yard line when the Vikings Sam Rucker fumbled the ball into the end zone, which was recovered by the Bears for a touchback. From there St. Joe would run out the final 3:40 of the game for the 30-7 victory.

The Bears win breaks a two game losing stream in season openers and improves to 9-1 against Niles at the new Dickinson Stadium. and an overall lead of 66-34-2 in the 102 meetings. The Bears will head out on the road next week to face another Wolverine Conference foe Edwardsburg (1-0) next week.