GIRARD — A win is a win, and the Niles girls soccer team came away with another on Monday night.

The Niles Red Dragons improved to 8-2 on the season with a 4-1 Northeast 8 Conference victory in Girard over the Indians.

“Girard played a hard fought game,” Niles coach Scott Macmillan said. ” We ended up with the result we wanted, but we didn’t play very pretty. We have some improving to do. Our record isn’t important. It’s about how we’re playing in the middle of October.”

Girard goalie Ellie Mohr came out of the box, and Niles sophomore Kherington Stanford had an open shot, but Emily Ragozine got back to make the save for the Indians in the opening minutes.

Then, Niles sophomore Madelyn Yost scored the first goal of the game on a penalty kick with 14:55 left in the first half. Yost made it 2-0 when she scored again with 4:57 left until halftime.

“The first half was a little rough,” Yost said. “We pulled through in the second half. We came together as a team. We’re doing pretty well this season. We just have to keep working hard in practice.”

The first half got a lot closer when Girard (3-5-2) freshman Gabby Doran banged a shot into the back of the net off of a ricochet from Niles goalkeeper Gianna Wagner to make the score 2-1 at halftime.

“Gabby Doran is always at the right place at the right time,” Girard coach Dugan Paxton said. “She smacked it right in there. The effort that our girls gave was fantastic. We’ve been making progress each week. I’m exceptionally proud. The score doesn’t reflect how well they played.”

Stanford made it 3-1 early in the second half after a nice cross for the assist by sophomore Taylor Bickerstaff.

“We were slow in the first half,” Stanford said. “We knew we had to pick it up to pull through with the win. Taylor sent me a great ball. It was right where I needed it to be to make the run and put it right in.”

Bickerstaff nearly sailed one in from 20 yards out on a free kick before Stanford added the fourth goal of the night for the Dragons with 17:31 left in regulation.

“Both girls that scored for us tonight are very good players,” Macmillan said. “They’re young. They need to understand how to play together and share the ball. Their vision is good. Madelyn Yost came out of the back to score her goals. Stanford did her job scoring because she plays up front.

“We always have a goal to win the Northeast 8 Conference. Our goal is to win every game. We just try to take it one game at a time.”