By Jackson Shoe | @jackson.shoe
Longwood entered the 2026 season looking to move forward from a three-win campaign. Four matches later, the Lancers have already surpassed that win total and reached territory the program had never occupied at the Division I level.
A 4-0 start under third-year head coach Paul Gilbert has given Longwood its best opening since moving to Division I. The Lancers have scored 17 goals, produced 20 assists and, on Sept. 1, received a vote in the United Soccer Coaches national poll for the first time in their Division I history. The recognition came after Longwood opened 3-0, before the lancers added a fourth victory later that day with a 2-1 road win at Campbell.
The early results represent a sharp change from a year ago.
Longwood finished 3-8-5 in 2025 and scored 20 goals across 16 matches, an average of 1.25 per game. Through four matches this fall, the Lancers have nearly matched that season-long total while averaging 4.25 goals per game.
The difference has been driven by a familiar centerpiece surrounded by a largely new collection of attacking options. Junior forward Brando Bedolla led Longwood with six goals, six assists and 18 points in 2025, earning second-team All-Big South honors. Four matches into 2026, he already has four goals, five assists and 13 points.
But Longwood’s offensive improvement extends well beyond its returning leading scorer.
Five newcomers — Joshwa Campbell, Pau Garcia, Youssef Shafei, Mesfin Roda and Levon Saribekyan — have combined for 12 of the Lancers’ 17 goals and nine of their 20 assists.
Campbell has provided the biggest immediate scoring impact.
The junior forward arrived after two seasons at UAB in which he played nine matches and 120 total minutes. He has started three of Longwood’s first four matches and leads the Lancers with five goals, including a pair of two-goal performances to begin the season.
His emergence was immediate.
Longwood opened at William & Mary on Aug. 20 and found itself trailing 4-2 during the second half. The Lancers responded with four goals in a span of less than 16 minutes, turning the deficit into a 6-4 advantage before holding on for a 6-5 victory.
Campbell and Shafei each scored twice. Bedolla finished with a goal and two assists, while Garcia added a goal and an assist. Roda recorded three assists.
The six goals were Longwood’s most in a road match during its Division I era and provided an early indication that an offense that struggled for consistency in 2025 could look considerably different.
Four days later, Longwood did it again.
The Lancers beat Coastal Carolina 4-2 behind another two-goal performance from Campbell. Bedolla was involved in all four goals, scoring once and assisting on the other three. Longwood then moved to 3-0 for the first time in its Division I history with a 5-0 win against southern Virginia. five different Lancers scored, including Bedolla, Saribekyan, Garcia, Diego Diaz and Shafei.
The production has come from players with varied paths to Farmville.
Shafei transferred from Central Connecticut State after recording a goal and an assist as a freshman. Roda previously played at Milwaukee and Florida Atlantic and recorded five goals and seven assists during an All-Horizon League season at Milwaukee in 2024.
Garcia arrived from Spain, while Saribekyan’s background includes time with the LA Galaxy Academy, Ventura County FC, FC Ararat II and Iowa Western Community College. Together, the additions have changed the distribution of Longwood’s attack. Bedolla accounted for six of Longwood’s 20 goals last season. He remains one of the Lancers’ most productive players, but he has not needed to account for the majority of the increased scoring himself. Five newcomers have already produced 60 percent as many goals through four matches as Longwood’s entire team scored during the 2025 season.
Longwood has also increased its attacking volume. The Lancers averaged fewer than 12 shots per game last season. They have taken 62 through four matches this year, an average of 15.5.
The defensive numbers have not undergone the same transformation. Longwood conceded 34 goals in 16 matches last season, an average of 2.13 per game. The Lancers have allowed eight through four matches this year, including five in the opener at William & Mary.
Instead, longwood has repeatedly produced enough offense to overcome those goals. That was the case again at Campbell.
For the first time this season, Longwood entered halftime without scoring and trailed 1-0. The Lancers responded with two second-half goals to win 2-1, improving to 4-0 after three straight matches in which they had scored at least four times.
The victory came hours after another program first. Longwood was listed among the teams receiving votes in the Sept. 1 United Soccer Coaches division I national rankings.
The Lancers received one vote after receiving none in either the preseason rankings or the first regular-season poll. It is a modest place in the national picture, but a new one for a program that was picked fifth in the Big South preseason poll after winning three matches a year ago.
Four games have not erased the challenges ahead. Big South play has yet to begin, and Longwood still has road matches at ETSU and James Madison before conference competition opens at UNC Asheville on Sept. 19. But through the opening weeks of Gilbert’s third season, Longwood has already established something it never did in 2025: an attack producing goals at one of the highest rates in Division I.
After needing an entire season to score 20 goals a year ago, the lancers are only three away from that total.
It has taken them four matches.
