How the growth of Brayden Klein has helped Marlboro football get off to a 3-0 start

HOWELL – A little less than a year ago, Brayden Klein was thrown into an almost impossible spot.

Klein, then a junior quarterback at Marlboro, was thrust into a game at Howell after A.J. Schwartz, then, Marlboro’s senior starting quarterback, sustained a season-ending knee injury.

“I came in a little bit nervous,” Klein said about that night last Sept. 23.

Marlboro, which was 3-0 at that time, was defeated that night at Howell. That loss started a three-game losing streak.

NJ high school football: Shore Conference football schedule, scoreboard, highlights: Week 3

Thursday night, once again at Howell, Klein, now the Mustangs’ starting senior quarterback, threw the go-ahead 45-yard touchdown pass to senior Sam Hirsch with 4:53 left in the third quarter as Marlboro improved to 3-0 for the third straight season with a 17-7 victory in a Shore Conference Freedom Division game.

Klein was only 2-for-3 for 57 yards, but he has done what has been asked of him this season. He also ran for 31 yards on 11 carries Thursday night.

Quarterback Brayden Klein (No. 5) and Matt Cassidy (No. 22) sparked Marlboro to a 17-7 win over Howell Thursday night.

“I have definitely slowed my mind down,” Klein said. “I’ve been making better reads. Everybody is supporting me. I feel so confident with the team we have right now.”

Klein does have plenty of support. Senior running back/middle linebacker Matt Cassidy does a lot of everything on both sides of the ball. He rushed for 180 yards and a TD on 25 carries and was a force on defense.

But, a quarterback who does not make mistakes and makes a key play every now is an important luxury.

“He’s managing the game,” Cassidy said. “He’s been way smarter with the ball. He’s been managing the field. He’s more aware what’s going on. He’s doing great.”

Marlboro coach Jason Dagato said the experience of being thrown into the fire last year at Howell and playing the rest of the season, which included the Mustangs winning a playoff game for the first time since 1994, has helped Klein confidence-wise.

“Two big things we emphasized with him in the offseason: No. 1: Get faster so we can use his legs in the run game,”’ Dagato said. “No. 2, making good decisions with the football. Toward the end of last year, he flashed some excellent potential to take over games.

“We really wanted to bring that out of him this year, where he can really command the field, use his head to make good decisions, put us in good situations and protect the football.”

What it means

Marlboro (3-0, 2-0), which defeated Howell for the first time since 2020, is now in position to challenge for the Freedom Division championship. Marlboro’s last divisional title came in 1994, when it won Shore Conference Class A North. That was also the same season the Mustangs won the NJSIAA Central Group 4 championship for the only sectional title they have ever won.

The Mustangs have divisional games remaining with Lacey (0-3, 0-1), Jackson Memorial (2-0, 1-0) and Middletown North (2-1, 1-0).

Marlboro has been prevented from going 4-0 each of the past two seasons. Central defeated Marlboro in 2021. Howell last season.

Howell fell to 0-3 overall and 0-2 in the division. Its three defeats are by a combined 11 points.

Key play

Klein’s TD pass to Hirsch came on a first and 10 and came three plays after Howell had tied the game 7-7 with 6:12 left in the third quarter on a 1-yard TD run by Brandon Wright that capped an 11-play, 70-yard drive off the second half kickoff

Consecutive runs of 5 and 12 yards by Cassidy had preceeded the TD pass, which came on a post pattern down the middle off a play-action fake to Cassidy. Hirsch was wide open.

“We had talked about it at halftime,” Klein said. “I was saying to myself, ‘This is my opportunity.”

The play-action fake had frozen the Howell safety.

“We were holding on to that one,” Dagato said. “We just kept saying, ‘We’ve got to throw. We’ve got to throw this play’. We knew it was going to be there. It was really just a matter of our execution. We executed it and got it done.”

By the numbers

Marlboro led 7-0 at halftime on a 2-yard run by Cassidy that capped a nine-play, 89-yard drive that he keyed with runs of 52 and 17 yards.

That drive came after the Mustangs stopped Howell on downs at the 11 after Howell had recovered a fumble at the Marlboro 18.

However, the score did not tell how much the Mustangs dominated the opening half.

Cassidy had 134 yards in the first half. Marlboro’s defense held Howell without a first down and to minus 17 yards rushing and just 5 yards of total offense.

The Mustangs outgained Howell 175-5 in the first half and had a 33 to 16 advantage in plays.

However, Howell stopped Marlboro on downs at the 1 in the second quarter and a 40-yard Marlboro field goal attempt went awry with a bad snap.

Up next

Marlboro will host Lacey on Sept. 23 at 12 p.m.

Howell will play at Jackson Memorial on Sept. 22 at 6:30 p.m.

Marlboro 17, Howell 7

Marlboro 7 0 7 3 – 17

Howell 0 0 7 0 – 7

First Quarter

M: Matt Cassidy 2 run (Luke Rubin kick).

Third Quarter

H: Brandon Wright 1 run (Luke Allard kick).

M: Sam Hirsch 45 pass from Brayden Klein (Rubin kick).

Fourth Quarter

M: Rubin 39 Field Goal.

Individual Statistics

Rushing: M: Matt Cassidy 25-180, Brayden Klein 11-31, Christian LaFonte 4-10, Sam Hirsch 3-5, Luke Houston 1-2, Michael Consolazio 2-0, Team 2-(-16). H: Brandon Wright 12-23, Juan DeJesus 4-12, Egan Nelms 7-0, Vincent Meehan 4-(-10).

Passing: M: Klein 2-3-0-53. H: Nelms 14-19-1-107. Meehan 2-4-0-18.

Receiving: M: Sam Hirsch 1-45, Houston 1-12. H: Kevin Maloney 6-54, Zach Padilla 3-40, DeJesus 3-6, Declan Flaherty 2-5, Matthew Iandoli 1-12, Gavin Carr 1-8.

Interceptions: M: Nicholas Scaff.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jersey Shore football: QB, linebacker spark Marlboro’s win over Howell