Marlboro has fuel for ‘pressure-packed’ games
They were the kind of wins that can propel a high school football program forward. Particularly one like Marlboro, breathing the rarified air in upper regions of the Shore Conference for the first time in in a long time.
There was last season’s dramatic 1714 victory at Manalapan as time expired, the Mustangs’ first win over their district foe since 1994. And a 21-17 win over Washington Township was their first NJSIAA playoff win since winning their lone state sectional championship 28 years earlier.
Now the Mustangs, 13-7 over the past two seasons, are trying to keep the momentum going.
“Those are obviously huge moments,” Marlboro coach Jason Dagato said. “Having those experiences, it’s good fuel for the fire. These kids want to get back to those kinds of games. Big, pressure-packed, important games. And there’s an understanding that nobody is going to hand it to you. You have to go get it.
“And it has given these kids some confidence that we can play. Even when the chips are down. We experienced a lot of adversity last year and you need to keep throwing punches.”
The biggest loss of all came when senior quarterback AJ Schwartz went down with a season-ending knee injury against Howell.
Instead of going 4-0 for the first time since 1999, the Mustangs lost three straight, before rallying late in the season.
Now Marlboro pushes forward with some new opponents within the Freedom Division, including Southern, Middletown North and Lacey, who join Freedom holdovers Jackson Memorial and Howell.
The non-division schedule that includes area power Rumson-Fair Haven, St. John Vianney (in the Sept. 2 season opener) and Freehold Township.
“I take the fact that we’re playing Rumson as a compliment,” Dagato said. “Someone thought this looks like a good game, let’s put it on there. To me that’s a compliment. That’s going to be a super fun one, and test our program a little bit.
“The division is super competitive. It looks like everybody can beat everybody. There’s not a clear-cut favorite.”
Shore Conference Freedom Division
PETER ACKERMAN/ASBURY PARK PRESS
● NJSIAA South Group 5
● 2022 RECORD: 6-4
● COACH:Jason Dagato, 12th season, (30-67 career record).
New faces seek same results
Many of the players who laid the foundation for the program’s recent rise have graduated. And losing the likes of Schwartz and Ryan Mendes, the Mustangs are faced with transitioning to a new group of seniors without missing a beat on the field.
“We’re trying to find new leadership,” Dagato said. “That is the challenge early on, getting the seniors to understand it’s their team now, and they need to set the tone for what we’re going to be, how were going to practice, how we’re going to play. And they have done a good job. We’ve had some very strong leadership graduate. But on the flip side, these guys learned from them and understand the roles they have to take over now, and they’ve put in a lot of great work.”
It’s also the first summer with quarterback Brayden Klein under center. Klein took over after Schwartz was injured and eventually led the team to three straight late-season wins, and put together the game-tying drive in the fourth quarter against Manalapan.
“It was a very difficult situation for him to step in like that,” Dagato said. “AJ was a fantastic football player and it was just a crushing moment, but we also knew we had Brayden had worked hard his sophomore and junior year waiting in the wings.
“And once he got his bearings and we got our bearings in terms of what we were asking him to do, he was playing well at the end of the season.”