Shaq Attack: Richardson Helps Marlboro Seize First Place in Division Race

MARLBORO – Trailing by a point in the fourth quarter on Friday night, Marlboro needed Shaqur Richardson to get them a yard on fourth down to keep a crucial drive alive against Raritan. 

He got them 40. 

The senior running back ripped off a clutch touchdown run to put the Mustangs in front for good in a rollercoaster game that featured eight lead changes and ended in a 37-30 win that put Marlboro in sole possession of first place in Class C North. 

 

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Richardson ran for a career-high 141 yards on 24 carries to complement a pair of touchdown passes and a touchdown run by senior quarterback Nick Dimino to highlight Senior Night for the host Mustangs (4-1, 3-0). Marlboro head coach Jason Dagato told his team afterward that he doesn’t typically give out game balls, but he flipped one to Richardson for his special night. 

“It’s beautiful,” Richardson said. “I worked hard for this, I kept grinding, and the work is paying off.” 

“He’s becoming more comfortable, more confident,” Dagato said. “He just wants to be great.” 

Marlboro trailed the Rockets 23-22 when they went for it on fourth-and-1, and Richardson rewarded them with his 40-yard scoring burst. 

“I broke free and the only thing I was worried about was not getting caught,” Richardson said. 

“That’s the line stepping up in a huge spot,” Dimino said. “We only needed a yard, but they gave us more.” 

Senior Charlie Kaplan followed Richardson’s touchdown with a two-point conversion run for a 30-23 lead with 9:55 left in the game. The defense then forced a three-and-out after Dimino, who also plays in the secondary, broke up a deep pass on third down.

That set up a five-play, 51-yard drive that essentially put the game away. The threat of Richardson running the ball helped set it up, as Dimino ran a bootleg off play action and found senior tight end James Torres for a 34-yard touchdown. 

“I saw the corner drop down, drifting a little bit towards me because he was probably expecting me to run, so I told my tight end James Torres to go up the field, and things went well,” Dimino said. 

“We felt like they were starting to overplay some things,” Dagato said about Raritan. “They wanted to take (Richardson) out of the game, so we thought, you know what, now’s a good time to try one, and we got it.” 

It pushed Marlboro’s lead to 37-23 with 4:53 left in the game. Raritan (3-2, 2-1) didn’t score again until senior quarterback Parker Needham’s one-yard touchdown run with only 0.8 of a second left for the final margin in the first meeting between the two teams since 1983. 

Marlboro ran for 237 yards on an average of 7.2 yards per carry in the victory. The Mustangs set the tone early with a 10-play, 57-yard drive that included a 20-yard run by Dimino behind a consistent push from the offensive line. The senior quarterback capped it with an 18-yard touchdown pass to senior tight end Justin Goodman for a 7-0 advantage with 2:27 left in the first quarter. 

“On the first drive we saw it on the Hudl Sideline view,” Dagato said about his offensive line winning the line of scrimmage. “We felt like the push was there, we were just kind of shooting ourselves in the foot a little bit at first.” 

Raritan answered with an 11-play, 80-yard drive in which Needham hit senior Eric Berg for a 33-yard gain on a screen pass that helped set up a 16-yard touchdown run by Berg on fourth down that tied it 7-7 with 8:53 left in the half. Berg finished with 138 total yards between rushing and receiving in the loss. 

Marlboro came right back with an eight-play, 78-yard drive in which Dimino ripped off a 40-yard run and scored on a 1-yard run three plays later for a 13-7 advantage after a missed extra point. 

Junior Louis Zweidinger then returned the ensuing kickoff to Marlboro’s 27-yard line to put the Rockets immediately in business. Four plays later, Zweidinger caught a 15-yard touchdown pass(opens in new tab) falling backward into the end zone for a 14-13 Raritan lead with 1:38 left in the half. 

The Mustangs weren’t done, as they zoomed 77 yards in 1:38 to seize a 16-14 halftime lead on a 20-yard field goal by Zach Mojares as time expired. 

After the teams traded possessions to start the third quarter, Raritan took a 17-16 lead on a 28-yard field goal by Brennan Spengler for the fifth lead change of the game. It was short-lived, however, as senior Chris Scaff had the home crowd roaring when he took the ensuing kickoff 97 yards to the house to swing things back in Marlboro’s favor at 22-17 with 2:25 left in the third quarter. 

Raritan shook it off and drove 54 yards in five plays, with a 25-yard catch by Zweidinger setting up Needham’s 3-yard touchdown run that gave the Rockets a 23-22 lead with 11:47 left in the game. 

That’s when Richardson and the offensive line came through to help the Mustangs put away the game. Richardson, who ran for a total of 40 yards on 15 carries as a junior, now has three 100-yard rushing games as a senior. 

“He’s just a hard worker, always going 100%, always asking what he’s got to do to be better,” Dimino said. 

The victory puts Marlboro in pole position for just the third division title in program history. The other two came in 1994 and 2023. 

“This definitely gives us a lot more confidence,” said Dimino, who ran for 92 yards in the win. “But we still have a lot more division opponents, and we’ve just got to show up every week.” 

“I try not to think about those things too much, and I’m not going to let them think about it either,” Dagato said. “At the end of the day, it’s nice to know that we are in the driver’s seat. We do control our own destiny and that’s a great spot to be in, but all that matters is next week.” 

The Mustangs, who have already doubled their win total from last season, will face Matawan (1-4) in a nondivisional game next week. Raritan will try to bounce back in a nondivisional game against Toms River East (1-4).

Scott Stump is the football editor and a reporter for Shore Sports Insider. He first started covering Shore Conference football in 1999. 

Email: scottstump25@gmail.com