Marlboro football records remarkable playoff win with defense, heart and tenacity

MARLBORO - A Hollywood script writer would never believe the script that came out of the Marlboro High School football team's 21-17 win over Washington Township Saturday in a NJSIAA South Group 5 quarterfinal.

The Mustangs, who have played without senior quarterback A.J. Schwartz because of a serious knee injury, since Sept. 23, lost standout junior running back/linebacker Matt Cassidy to what he said was a dislocated elbow with torn ligaments in the first quarter.

They also were 10 points behind entering the fourth quarter and had hardly generated anything on offense since Cassidy's injury.

However, somebody forgot to tell Marlboro, especially its defense, the game was over.

The defense blocked a field goal and came up with five interceptions in the second half, including one that set up a 1-yard TD plunge by senior Christian Lafonte with 8:27 remaining, and then senior wide receiver Alex Frank hit a wide-open Ryan Mendes with a 52-yard TD pass with 6:27 left to give the Mustangs the remarkable and hard-to-believe win.

"It's insane. It really proves how hard we've worked all season,'' said Cassidy, who watched the final three quarters from the sidelines with his arm in a harness. "With me and A.J. (Schwartz) sitting out this game, it proves we've got players all over the place. Even though, we fought adversity, we came out with the win - huge win.''

First playoff win since 1994

Marlboro (6-3), which was making its first playoff appearance since 1999 and recorded its first playoff win since 1994, has been living on the next man up philosophy since Schwartz was injured. The Mustangs, who will play at powerful Toms River North (10-0) Friday in a South Group 5 semifinal, have won three straight since they lost three straight following Schwartz's injury.

"At the end of the day, you have to keep moving forward,'' Marlboro coach Jason Dagato said. "The kids have just kept moving forward, just moving forward, just moving forward. Cassidy goes down in the first half, and the coaches didn't panic and just turned to each other, 'This is what we get paid to do. We've been dealing with this all year long. The next guy's got to get in and do the job. The next guy's got to get in and do the job'.

"You should have seen our guys at halftime - just very steel-faced. They knew the task ahead of them. We've been here before. We've been underdogs for weeks and weeks weeks now, and we just keep our punching our way out of it.''

Mendes experienced a championship moment with the Marlboro basketball team last year when the Mustangs won the Shore Conference Tournament and Central Group 4 championships, but he said what he and his football teammates accomplished Saturday was on a different level.

"This is the top one,'' Mendes said. "This feels great. It's amazing.''

The defense never rested

The defense, under the direction of coordinator Reid Stapp, would not the let the Mustang lose contact with the Minutemen.

Except for a 99-yard TD run by junior quarterback Jared Dzierzgowski and an 11-yard TD pass from Dzierzgowski to Jason DiBlasio in the last 2:04 of the first half, the defense was outstanding.

Mendes blocked a 27-yard field goal with 24.6 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

Then, the interception parade began. Jake Houston's INT and 33-yard return to the 7 set up Lafonte's TD run.

Nick Scaff and Houston followed with their second INTs and Anthony Tropeano clinched the win with an INT. \

The line, led by senior Lucas McEvoy, pressured Dzierzgowski constantly.

Junior punter/kicker Luke Rosen constantly put Washington Township in poor field position with his punts, which included a 61-yarder, and his kickoffs.

"This group is all fight and heart. We never want to give up,'' Mendes said. "I want to give a shout out to Stapp. He's constantly telling us about FTP - fast, physical, takeaways. We've all brought into it. Every play, FTP, is all we think.''

In case anybody feels Saturday's performance was a mirage by the Marlboro defense, the Mustangs have allowed just 14.2 points a game and have had six games where they have allowed 17 points or less.

"Our defense has been great all year. They've been pretty good tacklers all year,'' Dagato said. "They make big plays. It's just amazing to watch them play. Past couple of weeks, we've known our defense will keep us in the game. Our offense has to hold serve sometimes. We keep saying every week, we have to got another roll of duct tape, some more bubble gum and try to find a way to make it work.''

The winning call

Dagato and his coaching staff reached into the bag of tricks for the winning TD.

"That double pass, we've been holding on to for weeks,'' Dagato said. "It works in practice every time. I haven't had the courage to call it. I thought, 'Hey, this could be our last game of the year, if we're going to do it, let's do it'. It was a gutsy call. I think we all agreed on it. We were holding on to our heads on that a little bit. It worked just the way it worked in practice.''

Junior quarterback Brayden Klein threw a lateral to the left to Frank and Frank spotted a streaking Mendes down the left sideline. Mendes was open by at least 10 yards. He hauled it in and raced into the end zone to set off a joyous celebrations amongst the Marlboro players, coaches and fans.

"I said, 'I love that play','' Mendes said. ''I knew it was going to work. We haven't run a trick play all year. They had no idea it was coming. It was a great call.''

A group that has put Marlboro on the map

Except for 1994, when a team coached by Larry Zdilla won the Central Group 4 championship, and 1999, much of Marlboro's football history has been bleak.

Dagato, in his 10th season, has gone through some of those lean seasons. The Mustangs were 17-60 in his first eight seasons. They are 13-6 in the last two. Last season, they went 7-3 for their first winning season since 1999 and barely missed qualifying for the playoffs.

"I tell these guys, we're earning respect on a weekly basis,'' Dagato said. "Early in the season, I felt like every time, we won a game, an article would come out and say a 'tough Marlboro team' or a good Marlboro team'. I would say, 'make them drop the adjective and make them just say, Marlboro and everybody would know Marlboro is good now'. ''

Good teams overcome what Marlboro has had to overcome most of the season and win playoff games even though the two players, who are widely considered the heart-and-soul of the team are not on the field in a playoff game.

"We've overcome so much adversity,'' said Cassidy, who opened the scoring with a hard-nosed 17-yard TD run in which he dragged several Washington Township tacklers into the end zone with him to cap an 80-yard, nine-play drive. "It really just proves the heart that our team and our town has. And we're not done.''

Marlboro 21, Washington Township 17

Washington Township 0 17 0 0 - 17

Marlboro 7 0 0 14 - 21

First quarter

M: Matt Cassidy 17 run (Luke Rubin kick).

Second Quarter

WT: Max Diraddo 27 Field Goal.

WT: Jared Dzierzgowski 99 run (Diraddo kick).

WT: Jason DiBlasio 11 pass from Dzierzgowski (Diraddo kick).

Fourth quarter

M: Christian Lafonte 1 run (Rubin kick).

M: Ryan Mendes 52 pass from Alex Frank (Rubin kick).

Statistics

Rushing: WT: Jared Dzierzgowski 19-114, Giuliano Scavetta 15-47, Logan Perez 4-3. M: Matt Cassidy 9-37, Christian Lafonte 10-9, Dan Alcide 4-7, Brayden Klein 2-3, Jake Houston 1-1,

Passing: WT: Dzierzgowski 10-25-5-121. M: Klein 6-15-3-72. Alex Frank 1-1-0-52.

Receiving: Jason DiBlasio 4-79, Gabe Mosco 3-18, Jason DiBlasio 1-11, Giuliano Scavetta 1-9, Quentin Singleton 1-4. M: Ryan Mendes 3-60, Houston 2-32, Lucas McEvoy 1-18, Cassidy 1-14,

Interceptions: WT: Logan Perez, John Williams, Michael Tomasetti. M: Nick Scaff 2, Houston 2, Anthony Tropeano.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Shore NJ Football: Marlboro shows heart , never give up attitude in win