Thursday Night Lights: Marlboro dominates Colts Neck in school’s first night football game

MARLBORO — Outside of an unexpected rain storm and a few first-half mistakes, the inaugural night football game at Marlboro High School was just about perfect.

Junior running back Zach Mojares ran for 104 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries, and junior quarterback/defensive back Nick Dimino threw for a score, ran for a 2-point conversion, and intercepted two passes on defense as the Mustangs christened their pristine lighted turf field with a 34-6 Shore Conference nondivisional victory over district rival Colts Neck on Thursday night.

Leading by only a point at halftime, Marlboro dominated the third and fourth quarters by outscoring the Cougars 27-0 and out-gaining them 204-35 to start the season 1-0 for the fifth straight year. Dimino tossed a 70-yard touchdown pass to junior tight end Charlie Kaplan in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead, and junior running back Hudson Muhlbach ripped off a 53-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to push Marlboro’s lead to 13-6. Mojares sealed the victory with touchdown runs of 3, 4, and 8 yards as the Mustangs pulled away in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, Marlboro forced four turnovers, with Dimino picking off two passes and senior linebacker Jake Stone recovering a pair of fumbles, first off a forced fumble by senior lineman Colin Burke and later after a strip-sack by Muhlbach. Senior defensive tackle Alex LaQuinta also had a strong game with one sack and multiple tackles for loss, while Mojares posted two sacks and Stone had one sack to complete their strong all-around performances.

“There’s nothing better than coming out here with your boys at night, rain or shine, to play some football,” Dimino said. “It was just a great feeling to be back.”

“1-0 always feels great,” Marlboro head coach Jason Dagato said. “We made a lot of mistakes early and then we put it back together and answered the challenge in the second half.”

After forcing Colts Neck to punt from midfield on the game’s opening possession, Marlboro struck first when Dimino extended the play on third-and-7 from the Mustangs’ 30-yard line. As he scrambled to his right he saw Kaplan wide open about 10 yards downfield. He flipped the ball over the pursuing defenders, and Kaplan hauled it in and raced untouched for a 70-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead with 7:07 left in the first quarter.

“I had the whole pocket, great pass protection,” Dimino said. “You just have to extend the play sometimes, and me and my receiver were on the same page. I just dumped it over, and he did the rest.”

Marlboro held its one-touchdown lead into the second quarter, when the teams played hot potato with a series of turnovers in a span of four minutes. First, it was Colts Neck senior lineman Ryan Ugarte pouncing on a Marlboro fumble to give the Cougars the ball just shy of midfield. Three plays later, Marlboro got the ball right back when Burke stripped the ballcarrier and Stone corralled the loose ball at the Colts Neck 43-yard line.

Two plays later, Marlboro attempted a middle screen, but senior defensive end Konrad Kolodiezj read the play perfectly and was there for the interception. Three plays after that, Colts Neck attempted a jet sweep pass, but the throw was intercepted by Dimino.

After taking over at their own 30-yard line, the Mustangs marched across midfield on a 15-yard run by Dimino and a 10-yard burst by Mojares. An illegal substitution penalty on a third-and-2 from the Colts Neck 26 short-circuited the drive, however. Marlboro turned it over on downs when Dimino’s pass fell incomplete on fourth-and-2 from the 27.

Colts Neck had just 27 yards of offense and two first downs at this point, but junior quarterback Davy Robbins got hot and the Cougars put together a 73-yard scoring drive in the final 3:01 of the first half. Robbins completed six passes to six different receivers and scrambled for a 16-yard gain to give Colts Neck a first down at the Marlboro 16 with under a minute on the clock. On third down from the 13, Royal powered his way through a few tacklers for a touchdown that pulled Colts Neck within a point. However, a dead-ball personal foul penalty on Colts Neck pushed the P.A.T. attempt back to the 17-yard line, and the ensuing 2-point pass was incomplete, keeping Marlboro ahead, 7-6, with 11 seconds left in the half.

Marlboro responded in the third quarter with a touchdown on its opening drive, setting the stage for a second half in which it scored on four of six possessions. After an 11-yard run by Dimino got back the penalty yards from the previous play, Muhlbach surged through the middle of the line and broke into the second level on his way to a 53-yard touchdown run and a 13-6 Marlboro lead.

Marlboro stopped a Colts Neck fake punt on the next series and took over at its own 40-yard line with 4:41 left in the third quarter. A steady rain was falling now, and the slick ball slipped out of Dimino’s hands on a shotgun snap and fell to the turf, where Kolodiezj recovered the fumble. But the Mustangs defense once again made a clutch play to regain momentum when Muhlbach stripped Robbins on a sack and Stone dove on the loose ball.

Marlboro made the most of its second chance with a 6-play, 50-yard scoring drive to take a 21-6 lead. Dimino broke off a 24-yard run down to the 15-yard line, and Mojares ran for 12 yards to bring up first-and-goal from the 3, where he punched it in for his first varsity touchdown. Dimino then ran in the 2-point conversion.

“We knew we were the better team and what we’re capable of,” Dimino said. “We had some first-half jitters, but we made sure to keep the energy up. We knew the game wasn’t over.”

Down by two scores entering the fourth quarter, Colts Neck had to take some chances and decided to go for it on fourth-and-4 from its own 37. Marlboro forced a turnover on downs and then got into the end zone for the fourth time after six straight carries by Mojares. He ran for 21 yards to move the ball to the 16 and eventually scored from four yards out to make it 27-6 with 8:27 to play.

On Colts Neck’s next possession, Mojares sacked Robbins on third-and-3, and Dimino then pulled down his second interception of the night to give Marlboro the ball at the Cougars’ 35-yard line. Six plays later, Mojares’s memorable night continued with his third touchdown, this one spanning eight yards and putting him over 100 yards for the game, as Marlboro’s lead ballooned to 34-6 with 4:07 remaining.

“Colts Neck has always been a rival, and this year they came in talking a lot of trash,” Mojares said. “It got to me, and it made me want to push through and have my best game ever.”

“We came into training camp feeling like we had three or four guys we wanted to take a hard look at toting the rock,” Dagato said. “As we got going, Hudson and Zach really started to stand out, and these past four to five days Zach Mojares has really established himself as the kind of back we saw tonight. He’s getting downhill and running behind his pads. And Hudson is very similar, so we have two guys who can do that. And the third guy was our quarterback, and he’s definitely an X-factor for us.”

The rain may have sent fans running for cover as it intensified during the second half, but it did not dampen the enthusiasm for the team’s first true home game under the lights (Marlboro has previously played night games at the Marlboro Recreation Center). It was a scene unlike any other in program history.

“Looking around before the game, it was really cool,” Dagato said. “People were hanging around in the parking lot, and as we were walking out, you could see the line way out past the gate and the stands packed. It was just an awesome atmosphere. I think (the turf, lights, and bigger stands) has kind of changed everything around here. Football is different around here now, and the kids are excited about it. I hope it’s like this every single weekend. And if we keep doing our job, it will be.”

 

Box Score

Marlboro 34, Colts Neck 6

	Colts Neck	Marlboro
First downs	10	14
Rushes-yards	22-40	38-268
Passing	14-25-2	1-5-1
Passing yards	90	70
Fumbles-lost	2-2	2-2
Penalties-yards	2-10	5-30

 

	1	2	3	4	F
Colts Neck (0-1)	0	6	0	0	6
Marlboro (1-0)	7	0	14	13	34

 

Scoring Summary

M — Charlie Kaplan 70-yard pass from Nick Dimino (Max Luzio kick)

C — Bryson Royal 13-yard run (pass failed)

M — Hudson Muhlbach 53-yard run (pass failed)

M — Zach Mojares 3-yard run (Nick Dimino run)

M — Zach Mojares 4-yard run (Max Luzio kick)

M — Zach Mojares 8-yard run (kick failed)

 

Individual Statistics

RUSHING — CN: Joe Pignatelli 3-19, Bryson Royal 11-18, Alex Baum 1-5, Davy Robbins 6-(-2), RJ Conover 1-(-3). M: Zach Mojares 18-104, Nick Dimino 9-81, Hudson Muhlbach 6-70, Charlie Kaplan 2-12, Chris Scaff 1-1, Shaqur Richardson 2-0.

PASSING — CN: Davy Robbins 14-24-1 90, RJ Conover 0-1-1 0; M: Nick Dimino 1-5-1 70.

RECEIVING — CN: Aidan Bain 4-34, Bryson Royal 5-28, Joe Pignatelli 1-10, Nico Zecchino 1-7, Alex Baum 1-4, Kyle Li 1-4, RJ Conover 1-3; M: Charlie Kaplan 1-70.

INTERCEPTIONS — CN: Konrad Kolodiezj 1-5; N: Nick Dimino 2-7.