When Marlboro and Highland get together, it’s usually a packed house.

The teams played to an empty house devoid of spectators as COVID-19 restrictions forced all spectators to a live-stream on YouTube to watch the Iron Dukes’ 60-43 win over the Huskies on Saturday at Highland High School.

The Iron Dukes were on the court the night before at the Mount Academy, where they rolled to an 82-33 win.

“I thought that we did very well,” Marlboro coach Mike Koehler said. “We played very solid defense and that was pretty awesome. I like what I’ve seen so far.”

Saturday’s victory didn’t come as easily, however, as the Iron Dukes (2-0) maintained a 4-point lead throughout, but a layup by the Huskies’ Aidan Wiser tied the game at 30-30 with 4:18 left in the third quarter, but Collin Casey scored off a drive to break the tie.

Casey scored a team-high 13 points, eight of which came in the third quarter as the Iron Dukes built a 6-point lead.

“Collin made some big shots down the stretch,” Koehler said. “It’s nice to see him step up.”

It was a total team effort, in a game where Marlboro put up 60 points, Casey was the only player to hit double figures, and someone different led the scoring in each quarter.

Alex Turnbull led the first quarter with four points and Alex Grzechowski scored six of his eight points in the second quarter and Dylan Gunsett scored five of his eight points in the fourth quarter.

The previous night, the Iron Dukes had a ton of assists in their big win over Mount.

“That’s the hardest thing because we’ve only played for two weeks,” Koehler said. “That’s a great attitude to have. Everyone is making the extra pass and they’re buying into what we want them to.”

After taking their lead, the Iron Dukes were able to clamp down on the defensive end and built a seven-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Gunsett gave Marlboro a 10-point lead with a 3-pointer with 6:13 left in the game.

“We have guys that are willing to step up and they all played big minutes,” Koehler said.

Ethan Thompson led the Huskies (0-1) with 11 points. Aidan Wiser and Zach Angelone had eight points each.

Highland coach Mike Milliman could not be reached by press time.

Both teams are a long way from where they were just a month earlier when it didn’t look like they’d have a season at all. Now, they have an abbreviated stretch for the rest of this month with no tournament play.

“I keep pushing them to go out there and play as hard as they can,” Koehler said. “laying together and playing hard is what we’ve always been about. It’s the seniors’ last shot and they’re happy to be playing. All my guys have a really great attitude and playing hard. That’s how you play the game. We’re playing just to win that game.”