Longwood football's Kyon Sarwari powers Lions to first win over Floyd since 2015 in Parkway Bowl

It had been 11 long years and 14 straight losses.

In a pregame huddle, Longwood junior defensive lineman Nyyir Thomas reminded his teammates how long it had been since the Lions beat Floyd. He shouted to them to do it for their community.

On Saturday, it was Longwood’s time.

Senior Kyon Sarwari rushed for 173 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries and added an interception as visiting Longwood defeated Floyd, 33-20, in Suffolk I to claim the Parkway Bowl for the first time since 2015.

“All my four years on varsity, I haven’t won against Floyd at all,” Sarwari said. “And in my senior year, this is something special I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

For Thomas, the memory of last season’s 41-7 playoff loss made the game personal.

“This is a game that’s been circled on my calendar since we lost in the playoffs, and I feel like they embarrassed us,” Thomas said. “I feel like this has been a long time coming. They’re a great team, but our guys and the community that we have, it means so much to us, and it’s great that we’re able to get this one today.”

Longwood (5-2) rushed for 297 yards on 30 carries. The Lions controlled the trenches and held Floyd (4-3) to 85 rushing yards on 19 attempts.

“We took our lumps last year. I started all five of those offensive lineman as young kids,” Longwood coach Sean Kluber said. “They owned the line of scrimmage. They were moving people off the ball.”

The victory was Kluber’s first over Floyd as Longwood’s head coach. First-year Floyd coach Pete Friedman’s Parkway Bowl debut ended in a loss. Floyd leads the all-time series 43-20-2.

After a scoreless first quarter, Longwood's Travis Gibbs intercepted a pass and returned it 62 yards. On the next play, Sarwari scored on an 8-yard run to give Longwood a 6-0 lead with 11:35 left in the second quarter.

Matthew Taiani found Derek Glock, who high-pointed the ball and scored a 40-yard touchdown with 6:16 left in the quarter to put Floyd ahead 7-6. Glock finished with eight catches for 156 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Sarwari’s 32-yard touchdown run put Longwood ahead 13-7. He then intercepted a pass to set up Ryan Greene’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Mark Davis, giving the Lions a 19-7 halftime lead .

After Longwood forced a three-and-out to open the second half, Sarwari burst through a big hole for a 51-yard touchdown run and a 26-7 lead with 9:48 left in the third quarter.

“The trenches, we’re just mowing everybody over,” junior offensive lineman Ed Princivil said. “We’re so big, we’re so physical, and that’s how we get it done. It was awesome.”

Ayari Graham, Trey Glenn, Jacob Duarte, Matt Reany and Princivil led the offensive line, with tight end De’Andre Levell and fullback Thomas helping pave the way.

Longwood’s defense finished with three interceptions. Two of them led to touchdowns. Davis had the final pick to end the third quarter with the Lions leading 33-14.

The victory put Longwood alone in third place heading toward the playoffs.

“We’ve been looking for this one for a while. We’ve been close the last couple years,” Kluber said. “My coaching staff had a great game plan. I can’t speak any more highly of them. My whole team has been working hard.

“So it means a lot to us, but we’re not trying to make this the highlight of our year,” he added. “We want to move forward, we want to keep getting better, because we want to play some meaningful football in November.”