Freehold Township Knocks Out Rival Marlboro Early, Moves on in CJ 4

MARLBORO — The Freehold Township boys basketball program has won a lot of postseason games by turning up the defensive pressure over the course of those games, but in their NJSIAA Central Jersey Group IV first-round game at Marlboro on Thursday, the Patriots did not wait around to unleash the pressure.

Freehold Township — seeded 10th in the Central Jersey section of Group IV — landed a first-quarter knockout and finished the job in the third quarter during a 67-37 rout of the seventh-seeded Mustangs.

After Marlboro opened the scoring with a three-pointer by sophomore Nolan Gong, Freehold Township scored 24 unanswered points within the eight minutes of the first quarter and led Marlboro, 26-5, when the quarter finally ended.

The Mustangs battled back to within nine at halftime, 33-24, but never got closer thanks to a third quarter in which Freehold Township outscored the hosts, 16-2, in stretching the lead back to 49-26.

“We emphasized the start of the game with defensive intensity,” Freehold Township coach Todd Smith said. “Quite honestly, we got a little bit tired in the second quarter. Marlboro has guys who can shoot it, especially Gong, so we emphasized at halftime again that the first four minutes of the third quarter need to be like the start of the game — the defensive intensity, winning loose balls, rebounding, which all turn into transition points for us. To hold a team to seven points combined in two quarters, they did a phenomenal job defensively.”

Freehold Township’s starting five is a mix of emerging sophomore difference-makers and two senior veterans and the two dynamics blended to perfection on Thursday. Sophomores Jake Schultzel, John O’Neill and Cole Gerigk each scored in double-figures, with Schultzel leading the way with 18 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots. O’Neill, meanwhile, posted 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists and Gerigk contributed 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists while running the point.

“There were a lot of emotions, playing in the state tournament,” Schultzel said. “We knew we just had to stay calm and play with a lot of energy.”

Make it a 17-0 run for Freehold Twp, including this steal and dunk by Jake Schultzel. Pats up 17-3 with 2:33 left in the 1st. pic.twitter.com/rEyFvQDr8I

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 27, 2025

Schultzel led the attack in the first half, during which he scored 10 of his points — including a thunderous dunk off a steal near midcourt. Marlboro had just taken a timeout trailing, 11-3, and Schultzel’s dunk made it 15-3 while sending the message that Freehold Township was not ready to relent out of the timeout. The Patriots went on to score nine more unanswered points before the Mustangs finally ended the run.

“Once I got the steal, I knew I was going up,” Schultzel said. “That energy we got from that, it just went through the whole gym.”

Schultzel, O’Neill and Gerigk were disruptive forces on both ends, with all three picking up two steals during the first half while combining for 25 rebounds and nine assists to go with the 40 combined points. Schultzel and O’Neill are both 6-foot-3 with even longer reach and Gerigk has similar attributes as a six-foot guard who can handle the role of point guard.

“He is very versatile and he understands he can be successful in a lot of areas,” Smith said of Gerigk. “He can impact the game in more ways than just scoring. He can rebound, he’s got some length, he can handle the ball. He is learning out to run an offense, which is making the guys around him a lot better.”

Nolan Gong hits a shot to end a 24-0 Marlboro run but Cole Gerigk gets the last basket of the quarter as Freehold Twp leads Marlboro 26-5 after 1. pic.twitter.com/SCeBxkBRQr

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 27, 2025

The sophomores are built in mold of the players that helped Freehold Township reach three straight Central Group IV finals from 2015 to 2017, as well as the group that finally broke through and won the program’s first title in 2019. Smith was an assistant under longtime head coach Brian Golub throughout that run in the 2010’s and, now in year two as head coach, is working toward shaping this team into one that can be similarly competitive in Central Group IV.

In the third quarter, Freehold Township needed a steady hand to guide the team through the adversity that came with Marlboro’s second-quarter run. The Mustangs rattled off a 16-4 run that cut Freehold Township’s lead to 30-21 and what looked like a lost cause for Marlboro through one quarter seemed like the beginnings of an epic comeback.

“In the second quarter, they came back a little bit,” Schultzel said. “We knew we had to stay composed and just keep going.”

Instead, senior Nick Cardone helped lead a balanced Freehold Township attack in the second half. The four-year varsity contributor scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half and also helped out with five rebounds and three assists for the Patriots. Fellow senior Jordan Dulnuan did not score in the second half, but hit a pair of first-half three-pointers and corralled five rebounds in support of the three sophomores and Cardone.

“We’re a young team, so we have been developing the whole year,” Cardone said. “We’ve been working our butts off this week, beat a good team in Dickinson (on Saturday) and coach has been striving for us to just come out crazy, and we did that. We gave up 19 points in the second quarter, but other than that, it was just great defense all around.

“We had the big lead, so there was no need to rush. No reason for bad shots or turnovers, so we just took our time and picked them apart.”

Nick Cardone splits the defense and it’s a 12-2 run for Freehold Twp to start the 3rd. Pats lead Marlboro 45-26 with 2:33 to go in the 3rd. pic.twitter.com/kPrKmEEqOd

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 27, 2025

The postseason success is a long time coming for Cardone, who played significant minutes as a freshman, became a starter as a sophomore and was set to be a leader on last year’s team before suffering a season-ending injury midway through the campaign. Cardone entered Thursday 1-2 in his state-tournament career, including a loss to Marlboro in the 2023 sectional quarterfinals — the final game of Golub’s coaching career.

“We’re made for this,” Cardone said. “Freehold Township is always in the state playoffs, always making runs. We’re looking forward to doing that again, especially with the sophomores.”

The two seniors have had to assume even more of a leadership role after fellow senior Sean Harris suffered a season-ending injury in late January, which has pushed even more of the workload to the sophomore class.

“We lost our senior point guard and captain in the middle of the season, so now I’m asking even more guys to step in and do more things,” Smith said. “We have done a really good job. We miss (Harris) a lot, but other guys have stepped up and done some really good things for us. And I can’t say enough good things about Cardone and Jordan as the two seniors that start and give us so much on both ends of the court. They are great leaders as well.”

After Marlboro opens the scoring, Freehold Twp scores 11 straight to go up 11-3, capped by a Jordan Dulnuan three. pic.twitter.com/VATZWVGw66

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) February 27, 2025

In addition boasting five starters who can score, Freehold Township’s starting five showed off its all-around passing prowess, with each player in the starting lineup dishing out at least two assists.

“It opens up the court a lot when pretty much our whole team can pass really well,” Schultzel said. “That’s something that we’ve gotten a lot better at as the season has gone on.”

“Offensively, we are growing up,” Smith said. “We’re 25 games into the season, we play six-to-seven sophomores and after 25 games, we’re not as young anymore as far as the experience. We’re trying to understand what we need to do fast vs. what we need to do patient and we got better at it today. We have been a roller coaster with that stuff throughout the season and even today at times, but we have gotten much better.”

With three sophomores in the starting five, the 2024-25 season has come with its share of growing pains for the Patriots. With Thursday’s win, they have a winning record for the third time this season. Freehold Township was 4-3 through seven games, lost four straight, then won four straight to get to 8-7.

“They have developed a lot,” Cardone said of the sophomores. “Their composure was great, especially in a big game like this. We got a big lead and we held it, so the composure for these guys was amazing.”

The Patriots made a bid to qualify for the Shore Conference Tournament, but finished 21st in the Shore Conference in NJSIAA power points through the cutoff with only the top 20 qualifying for the Shore Conference Tournament.

The SCT miss left Freehold Township with the No. 1 seed in the Shore Conference Coaches Cup and the Patriots rode that to the semifinals of the tournament before falling to Middletown South, 58-44. They bounced back by beating Dickinson in a state-tournament tune-up game and entered the NJSIAA Tournament confident in their chances to make a run, particularly with that run starting in a gym where Freehold Township defeated Marlboro, 58-50, during the regular season.

“It was disappointing for us to miss the Shore Conference Tournament,” Smith said. “Even if it was just one round, I wanted (the sophomores) to get that experience. So we did play up the Coaches Cup to say ‘This is meaningful and it matters.’ I think that helped them a little bit. I tried to schedule a tough game for them Saturday in Dickinson and that was a good game and good win for us. It’s just about them getting experience in different atmospheres with different levels of competition and them learning to play with each other.”

Two games vs. Marlboro — the other a 57-52 Mustangs win at Freehold Township — were part of a regular-season schedule that has Freehold Township ready to take on a Central Jersey Group IV bracket that runs through top-seeded Montgomery. Fortunately for the Patriots, they cannot play Montgomery until the sectional final, so they will next battle No. 2 Sayreville on the road Monday and, if that result goes their way, either No. 3 West Windsor-Plainsboro North or No. 6 Trenton in the sectional semifinals.

While formidable opponents, Freehold Township is confident facing Christian Brothers Academy, Colts Neck and Ranney twice each during the Class A North divisional season has the Patriots prepared for anything the rest of the way.

“We think we can beat anyone,” Cardone said. “We have faced a tough schedule, so we think we can beat anyone in our path.”