×

Dunkirk moves to 4-0

Marauders use dominant line performances to top Olean

ZOBSERVER Photo by Justin Goetz Dunkirk’s Issiah Velez evades Olean’s Zach Parr on a running play during the Marauders’ 28-0 shutout of the visiting Huskies Friday night.

Facing its toughest test of the season, Dunkirk (4-0, 3-0) came through with flying colors Friday night at Karl Hoeppner Field, as the Marauders used an impressive performance by the offensive and defensive lines in dismantling the Olean Huskies (2-2, 1-1), 28-0, in Section VI Class B2 football action.

“We got back to looking like Dunkirk football of old,” Sarratori said of his team’s offense. “We were running the ball solidly, we have a heck of a backfield if we can get our offensive line going, and they did a nice job. It’s like I’ve said, if we can control the line of scrimmage offensively, it sets us up for the whole game.

“It opens up everything when our line can block like that,” Sarratori added.

Dunkirk dominated the trenches, as it rushed for 277 yards on 48 attempts while holding Olean to 35 yards on 21 carries.

“We had a tough week of practice with stuff happening, so I was pretty darned impressed with them coming out here and re-focusing,” Sarratori said. “They played, probably, their best game of the year.”

The game started slowly for both teams, but the Marauders were able to put a scoring drive together toward the end of the opening frame, finishing it off just 10 seconds into the second quarter, when Jazzy Rivera punctuated a five-play, 30-yard effort with a 1-yard plunge into the end zone for a 6-0 lead.

“I’ll say this, our line put it together (Friday),” Sarratori said. “So I was impressed with that.”

Then, less than a minute later, Dunkirk took advantage of an Olean mistake deep in the Huskies’ end of the field, as the Marauders recovered a fumble at the 13-yard line. One play later, Rivera found Devaun Farnham-DeJesus from 13 yards out. And after Rivera ran in the two-point conversion, Dunkirk held a 14-0 lead with 10:55 remaining in the first half.

“Let’s put it this way, it gave us some momentum and it gave us a lot of confidence,” Sarratori said. “And you could see it took a little wind our of their sail.”

Dunkirk’s defense went back to work, taking advantage all night long of the fact that All-Western New York running back, Dylan Vincent, was out of the lineup with an ankle injury he sustained in his team’s loss to Maryvale in Week 3.

“We’re getting better,” Sarratori said. “(Olean) is a good football team, and yes they were missing their best player, but our line actually dominated for the first time this year and that’s a good sign. When our line is playing well, things get rolling for us.”

Despite the dominance of his team’s offensive and defensive lines, Sarratori knows Vincent not being on the field may have been a godsend.“It would have been a totally different game,” Sarratori said when asked how the absence of Vincent effected the Huskies. “He’s a hell of a player on offense, defense and special teams. I don’t know what would’ve happened.

“He warmed up, but we didn’t know he wasn’t playing until the game started,” Sarratori added. “But we didn’t even tell our kids. I don’t know if they knew or not, but we didn’t tell them. Trust me though, it was a sigh of relief for myself.”

After forcing yet another punt, the Marauders took over at its own 43-yard line with 7:46 left in the second quarter. The offense went to work and looked poised to put the game seemingly out of reach, but their drive stalled due to a pair of penalties — a false start at the Huskies’ 13-yard line, followed by a holding call at their 11-yard line — and they were forced to attempt a 32-yard field goal that Farnham-DeJesus missed to the right.

“With our offense, it’s very hard to take a 10-yard penalty or more,” Sarratori said. “We have to eliminate that stuff if we really want to keep this thing going.”

Olean got the ball back one more time, but was forced to punt and the teams went into the locker room with the home team ahead 14-0. During halftime, Sarratori and his coaches talked about what they needed to do to set the tone for the rest of the game. And with the Marauders receiving the ball to start the third quarter, they were able to put their plan into action right away.

Starting at their own 40-yard line, the Marauders put together a 14-play drive that took nearly eight minutes off the clock and was highlighted by a 13-yard run by Issiah Velez on 4th-and-4 at the Huskies’ 44-yard line, before being punctuated by a three-yard run up the middle by Velez.

“He’s shifty and he’s fast,” Sarratori said of Velez. “They were actually loading up on the inside and we were having trouble hitting our passes on that drive. But again, our line did a nice job and Issiah did a nice job using his speed to get to the outside.

“And that’s what we talked about (at halftime),” Sarratori added of the game plan for the opening drive of the second half. “We wanted to go out there and put a long, hard drive together and wear them down. And we did.”

Rivera ran in the two-point conversion for a 22-0 lead with 3:43 left in the third quarter and leaving very little doubt that the Marauders were going to be able to avenge one of their three losses from a year ago.

Olean put together its first sustained drive on the ensuing possession, as it was finally able to start with the ball somewhere other than its own 20-yard line. However, after starting at their own 45-yard line, the Huskies turned the ball over on downs eight plays later, giving the Marauders the ball back at the Dunkirk 38-yard line. From there, Velez ran the ball twice for 14 yards, Farnham-DeJesus broke off a 33-yard jaunt, Koty Leeper broke free up the middle for 13 yards and Rivera put the finishing touches on the scoring with a two-yard dive up the middle for the 28-0 final.

“It’s very hard to spread the wealth,” Sarratori said of his running backs. “It’s a hard job for myself, because we could have just lined up and run the ball between the tackles all night, but we have athletes and we have to spread it out and learn how to spread it out as well.”

Dunkirk’s 277 yards rushing was distributed amongst eight players, with Velez leading the way with 57 yards on 11 carries while Quantavis Kleckley had 49 yards on nine attempts. Also for the Marauders, who took advantage of great field position all night long, Tywon Wright had 45 yards on five carries while Farnham-DeJesus had 40 yards on two carries.

“That’s a credit to our defense and our special teams,” Sarratori said of his team’s ability to win the battle for field position. “We have probably the best place kicker in Western New York and he puts it in the end zone almost every time. And our defense is learning and it’s tough to play with a long field against our defense.”

Dunkirk takes a break from its league schedule next week when it travels to take on Southwestern, a team that should provide another good test for the Marauders and Sarratori knows his team will come ready to play.

“No, no way,” Sarratori said when asked if he thought his kids might look past Southwestern and toward their league game against Albion in Week 6. “These kids love to play football and (Southwestern) is a ranked team in the state and in Western New York. And they have former professional football player coaching them and a Dunkirk alumni, that played for me, Kevin Salisbury, as the athletic director, so we’ll be ready. It’s a going to be on (Time Warner), so it’s a big game.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today