Marlboro football coach Ryan Brooks has spent the last few years trying to get L.J. German to come out for the team.

This is the year the Marlboro High School senior responded, and two games in, the move paid dividends for Brooks, German and the Iron Dukes.

German went deep with 33 seconds left in the game, and quarterback Carter Rivieccio hit him in stride despite double coverage. German hauled in the pass in the end zone, giving the Iron Dukes their final lead in a 10-3 victory over the Highland Huskies in Friday Night’s “Black and Blue Bowl” at Dennis Burkett Field in Marlboro.

“I was pretty excited,” German said. “I’m always used to cooking my defender and doing my thing. I’ve got Carter, and he knows where to find me. I’m always ready for the catch.”

The Marlboro stands erupted in celebration, but there were still 33 seconds left to go, and the Huskies had two timeouts.

Those 33 seconds felt like forever.
Two kickoffs went out of bounds resulting in a free kick until the Iron Dukes finally relented and kicked the ball to Josh Bishop, who returned a kick for a touchdown he week before.

He had a 26-yard return, setting up the Huskies near midfield. However, they ran out of time at the Marlboro 35-yard line, keeping the “Black and Blue Bowl” trophy in Marlboro for another year.

Even after the Huskies tied the game with 1:04 remaining on Bishop’s 34-yard field goal, Rivieccio didn’t doubt his teammates.

“I had full faith in everyone,” Rivieccio said. “I tried to get everyone up, get their chins up. The game’s not over yet and look what happened.”

And when the game-winning touchdown ended, no one celebrated on the sidelines in front of the crowd harder than Rivieccio.

“That was mind blowing,” German said. “Everybody was excited. They ran down to the field on the touchdown.”

It was a celebration on a night that had an ominous start for the Iron Dukes as running back Sal Montaperto, Jr., was injured on the second play of the game and carried off in an ambulance.

“That hurt,” Rivieccio said. “He’s one of my best boys. That did hurt. He’s a great player, definitely a great loss but we’ll find a way to bounce back.”
They bounced back behind junior Jack Buzzurro, who had a strong game, running for 103 yards on 16 carries.

“We’ve noticed that for a long time with Jack,” Brooks said. “He’s been working so hard, and you can see the growth and the improvement that he’s made in the offseason, even from last year to this year. He had a great game last week complementing Junior, and it was just his turn to carry the (offense) today.”

However, it was the defense that carried the Iron Dukes, which held the Huskies scoreless until Bishop’s field goal. Giorgi Partsvania and Sean Robertson had eight tackles each and Daylon McKenzie had five tackles and an interception. Chris DeNatale, Michael DiViesti, Sam Garita and Alex Cocozza had six tackles each.

“Defense has always been huge for us the last few years,” Brooks said.
It didn’t help the Huskies that during two of their opportunities to score, they shot themselves in the foot.
When they crossed into Marlboro territory to start the third quarter, two false start penalties pushed them back to the 50 and they wound up punting.

“We had some opportunities that we weren’t able to capitalize on because of penalties, and that really hurt when we were down there,” Highland coach Tom Schlappich said. “I think we should have been on the one-foot line, and we ended up receiving another penalty.”

Then in the fourth quarter, a Marlboro penalty gave them a first-and-two on the Iron Dukes’ 9. Then they started going backwards. Then on a third-and-four, two straight motion penalties set them up at third-and 14. Then a completion, then two more five-yard penalties put them in a fourth-and-24.

“I understand it’s a rivalry game and, obviously, it hurts to lose,” Schlappich said. “But it’s meaningless in the overall scheme of standing for playoffs. We have our entire season in front of us.”