Staff photo / R. Michael Semple. Howland's Davae Honzu carries the ball Thursday night against Niles.

HOWLAND — The streak is over.

For the first time since 2022, the Howland Tigers walked off the field with a victory.

A three touchdown performance from junior tailback Davae Honzu helped propel the Tigers to a 28-0 victory over rival Niles. The win marks the first under second-year coach Brian Jones, and the program’s first since Sept. 30, 2022, a 3-0 victory over Youngstown East.

“It feels fantastic,” Jones said. “For everybody involved, especially our seniors and our whole team, the last time we played was 307 days ago, (after we underachieved) last year, but it feels fantastic. It always feels good to win.

“It’s so important for the kids. They want to see the fruit of their labor, and they put in the work since December in the weight room and all through camp and the off season. You just hope that you can finally put things together and be in the game in the fourth quarter, and to have an opportunity to win and to see them be able to do that tonight is just, I’m just so proud of that.”

After a scoreless opening frame, the Tigers drove right down the field 50 yards, ending in a Honzu 1-yard score.

That first touchdown kickstarted Howland’s confidence, and it was all Tigers from that point on.

Frank Hoso saved the following drive on third and 21, with a 16-yard run, to set up Honzu again for his second score of the night. On 4th and 5, Honzu broke multiple tackles, racing out to a 22-yard score to extend that lead.

Taking a full death grip on the game, Tigers quarterback Luca Fronzaglio called his own number on a 1-yard rush to extend the lead to three scores before halftime with four seconds left.

Honzu added one last touchdown to his total in the last few minutes of the game. Taking advantage of a muffed punt that set the Tigers up in the red zone, Honzu scampered 19 yards to put Howland up 28-0.

A junior, Honzu is expected to be a major impact player for Howland this year.

“He’s really coming into his own right now,” Jones said. “He had a tough year last year, but he really embraces his role here, and as long as we keep him healthy, we feel really good about his future.”

While not a finished product, and no one is in August, Jones is optimistic. He’d rather clean things up after a win than a loss.

“We’ve got a lot to clean up on both sides of the ball,” Jones said. “We have to go on the road (next week) to Poland, and that’s, that’s a heck of a place to play, and they’ve got a great football team over there. We’re going to celebrate this one for the time being, but we got a lot of work to do.”

Niles looks for its first win of the season as they host Parma Heights Holy Name on Friday.

To get the better of the Green Wave, Niles coach Jim Parry needs to see a much cleaner effort than he did on Thursday.

“From our end, (we made) every mistake possible, really, and the reverse of that is that Howland played a very clean football game,” Parry said. “They were great in the kicking game, and they took advantage of every opportunity we gave them, of which there were a lot. Their defense looked outstanding tonight.

“I think they were playing, especially once they got up by a score, they were playing with a lot of confidence. And I think we were doubting ourselves. We’re a very young team. We expect some of that, but you can’t compound that with more mistakes. Hats off to Howland for pitching a shutout, because I think their kids played with a lot more enthusiasm than we did.”