With a kicker who has a leg like Ty Long does, it was only a matter time.

“We knew at some point Ty was going to win a football game for us,” Roswell head coach Leo Barker said. “And, by golly, it was a 53-yarder.”

Long drilled one from 53 yards out as time expired on the Hornets’ first-round playoff game against Parkview, giving Roswell a 29-27 victory and igniting a wild celebration on the field.

“I knew it when I kicked it,” Long said. “It was straight and had plenty of distance.”

And once it sailed through?

“I was freaking out,” Long said. “I didn’t know what to do. I was just freaking out.”

The win ends Parkview’s decade-long postseason dominance of the Hornets and sets Roswell up with a second round date against Collins Hill on Friday.

Roswell trailed 27-26 for almost the entire second half, thanks to a 63-yard touchdown run by Marquis Webb on the third play of the third quarter.

Roswell’s offense stalled out for much of the half, but the Hornets got the ball one final time at their own 26-yard line with 1:02 left in the game and no time outs remaining.

The Hornets ran four offensive plays, including two clutch completions by quarterback J.P. Douglas to Johnny Peace (who doubles as the holder on the place-kicking unit) and Nick Henderson, to reach the Parkview 35-yard line with four seconds remaining.

“J.P. is a battler. He’s a fighter. There’s no shyness in that young man. There’s no lack of courage, there’s no lack of want-to in that young man,” Barker said. “You give him a chance, he’s going to give you all he’s got.”

With no time outs remaining for either team, Long ran quickly out onto the field and booted the game winner.

“I was getting ready for it. I saw it, didn’t even think about it and went out there and crushed it,” Long said. “It was a perfect hold by Johnny Peace. He’s been perfect all year.”

The scoring stalemate of the second half stood in stark contrast to the offensive display that both teams put on in the first half.

Roswell scored a touchdown on both of its first two possessions of the game to race out a 14-0 lead with just over six minutes left in the first quarter. But Parkview battled back to tie it on a pair of first-quarter 80-yard scoring plays.

That’s when Roswell seemingly took control of the game. The Hornets went up 21-14 on a 17-yard touchdown run by Andrew Kwateng, who carried the load on the ground for Roswell in the absence of injured starting tailback Martez Sumler. Kwateng rushed for 159 yards and two touchdowns on 23 carries, 19 of which came in the first half.

“We knew [Kwateng] could run the football. It’s fortunate for us, and unfortunate for him, that there’s another guy in front of him,” Barker said. “But you have to have two running backs. [Sumler] went down and Kwateng stepped up.”

On the ensuing possession a muffed punt resulted in a safety for Roswell. Long later added a 23-yard field goal that put the Hornets up 26-14 with 5:45 left in the first half.

But the Hornets had no answer for Parkview’s power running game. Webb and Joe Anderson both eclipsed 100 rushing yards and combined to score three of the Panthers’ four touchdowns.

“We got away from the fundamentals,” Barker said of his team’s defensive showing. “Anytime you try to tweak things, you can end up kicking yourself in the butt. You try to be too smart at times. And we outsmarted ourselves in a couple of instances and put ourselves in a bad position. I’m a big proponent of knowing what to do. I think that’s more important than all these schemes. We kind of got away from some things we did and it almost cost us.”

But the Hornets got the stop when they needed it, and it led to their first-ever win over Parkview. The teams had met four times previously – all since 2000 and all in the playoffs – and Parkview had won all four games.

“It’s a great win for our program,” Barker said. “And I sure welcome the opportunity to have another week to play.”