It was Senior Night; it was Homecoming; and nothing could dampen the spirits of the Marlboro football team.

Not the rain that was falling for most of Friday night’s game, and especially not the Spackenkill Spartans.

Miles Brooks threw for four touchdowns as the Iron Dukes rebounded from the previous week’s loss to the Wallkill Panthers in a 31-0 win over the Spartans on Friday night at Marlboro High School, cementing their Class B Division championship and a first-round bye in the upcoming Section 9 Class B playoffs.

“It’s a huge win,” quarterback Miles Brooks said. “We’ve got a lot of momentum going into the playoffs now. With that bye week, we can rest up and get everything fine-tuned, and get ready to make a deep run.”

The Iron Dukes have clinched the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will host the winner of this week’s game next week between No. 6 Red Hook and No. 3 Saugerties. The Iron Dukes have beaten both teams.

“The bye week is huge,” Marlboro coach Ryan Brooks said. “It gives us a chance to rest some guys. We can regroup and take a look at some things and just shore up some things in terms of being more efficient. We’ll do a lot of film study, a lot of individual work and stuff like that to make sure everything is clicking.”

Everything was clicking for the Iron Dukes offensively, as Brooks threw two touchdown passes each to Antonio Hickman and Carter Rivieccio. Salvatore Montaperto also completed a 42-yard field goal.

“Everybody was unselfish, doing their job,” Miles Brooks said. “It doesn’t matter who gets the ball as much as we put the ball in the end zone.”

First it was Hickman, who hauled in a 16-yard touchdown pass to give the Iron Dukes a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Then in the second, Brooks connected on a 32-yard seam pass to Rivieccio to give the Iron Dukes a 14-0 lead. Brooks closed the first half with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Hickman, giving Marlboro a 21-0 lead at halftime.
Marlboro scored 10 more points in the third quarter as Montaperto’s field goal extended the lead to 24 points, and then Brooks hit Rivieccio on a screen pass for a 38-yard catch-and-run.

“We want to do what we can to sustain drives,” coach Brooks said. As defensives adapt and give us different looks, the main thing is that we have different options to still move the ball or get the ball in the end zone.”

While the offense was building a lead, Ryan Emig let a defense that kept the Spartans scoreless. Spackenkill made the most headway on a drive aided by two 15-yard penalties against the Iron Dukes.

That second-quarter drive was stalled at the Marlboro 33-yard line by an interception by Rivieccio.

“I knew what they were running before they knew,” Emig said. “Watching a lot of film helps with that. You’ve just got to stay fast and physical.”

The Iron Dukes won all three of their Class B Division 2 games and finished the regular season with a 6-1 record. Now, they’ll get a week off before the semifinals.

“That’s a huge week for us,” Miles Brooks said. “We get an extra week to rest and watch film to prepare for our next opponent, and just get locked in.”