NILES — Father knows best.

Or maybe his program is currently on a little better footing than his son’s program.

The Niles girls soccer team held off visiting Hubbard, 2-1, on Wednesday at Bo Rein Stadium, as Red Dragons’ coach Scott MacMillan improved to 4-0 when coaching against his son, Josh.

“You always want to see your son succeed, and in my opinion, he is,” Scott MacMillan said. “He’s doing a good job over there, and they had the game tied 1-all with us in the second half. We beat them 2-0 in the opener (Aug. 16) and they’re dealing with some injuries and still trying to create a good culture there.

“But Hubbard is scrappy and I know that from when I was coaching there. The girls play hard for him and that’s great. I’m a little close to the situation because he still has two girls there who I coached a few years ago.”

The Red Dragons improved to 7-3 as Allison Cline broke the tie with 20:58 remaining when she followed a rocket shot from Emily Burnham that goalkeeper Bella Denno knocked down. The ball found Cline, who beat Denno one-on-one.

“We were using a new formation tonight and I think we did a good job with it, and we had plenty of opportunities,” Scott MacMillan said. “We had some good looks and should’ve scored a few more times, especially in the first half. It’s a possession formation and for the most part, the girls did pretty well. We’ll make a few tweaks, but we’re going to live and die with this formation the rest of the season.”

Despite some crisp passing and good connections that helped Niles outshoot its guests 22-2, the Eagles stayed in the game thanks to Denno, who made 13 saves.

“Bella is a diamond in the rough. It was just her third game in goal,” said Josh MacMillan, a 1998 Niles graduate who played for his father for three years in high school. “She never played goalkeeper at any level until this past summer, and she works so hard and has shown remarkable improvement. She’s very vocal back there and isn’t afraid to be in a leadership role as just a sophomore.”

The Eagles, who fell to 4-4, had tied the game at 1 with 27:51 remaining when Hubbard freshman keeper Alexis Macciocca shanked a kick that Kyliegh Johnson intercepted and dribbled in before finding the back of the net.

“Kyliegh has been our most consistent offensive threat these past two years,” Josh MacMillan said. “She had an opportunity there and took advantage of it.”

“We played that ball back to relieve some pressure and made a mistake, and there was no back line to help (Macciocca) and she rushed her kick,” Scott MacMillan said. “She’ll learn from that.”

Niles led 1-0 at halftime, as Emily Petillo scored off a rebound shot from Cassie Pleacher just 7 minutes into the match.

“Maybe we’ll get them next year,” Josh MacMillan said. “It’s an honor to coach against my dad. He’s my hero. He more or less raised us as a single parent. He taught me all about soccer and life lessons and is just a remarkable person. Still, I want to beat him.”