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Historic rivalry ‘a treat’: Dunkirk-Fredonia contests remain ‘special’

By Braden Carmen 9 min read

There is nothing like the Dunkirk-Fredonia rivalry.

What else could take any other Monday night in January and turn it into a night people will remember forever?

This past Monday, Dunkirk and Fredonia came together for a regular season CCAA West 1 division boys basketball game at Fredonia High School. The usually spacious Fredonia parking lot was so full 30 minutes before the varsity game began that fans were parking in other lots across the campus. The entrance to the gym was backed up with a crowd huddled together in anticipation of entering after the junior varsity game concluded in hopes of finding a seat. There were not many to be found.

"If you've never seen it before, you're in for a treat," Fredonia boys basketball head coach Nick Bertrando said. "I would encourage anybody who has never been a part of it or seen it before to come out and just see it one time. Live it, because it's something special."

Monday's gym was packed even with the context that the Dunkirk-Fredonia rivalry has quickly become a one-sided affair in recent years when it comes to boys basketball. Fredonia has won 11 straight games over Dunkirk, including all 10 meetings since Bertrando took over as head coach.

Still, the stands, the doorway, and the parking lot were all full to the limit.

"I'm honored and thankful to be part of the opportunity to coach at Fredonia and experience this rivalry," Bertrando said after Monday's game. He then deflected the credit for his perfect record onto his players.

Fredonia also has a dominant advantage over Dunkirk on the football field. Since a 44-0 win by Dunkirk in 2016, the Hillbillies have been unbeaten against the Marauders. But even in poor weather this past fall, the stands were full when the Hillbillies took on the Marauders at Dunkirk High School to conclude a disappointing regular season for both teams.

"It was definitely nice to see that both sides of the field were full," Dunkirk head coach Edwin Gomez, a Dunkirk graduate, said after the game. "The atmosphere was definitely there. ... It will go down as a special game, for sure."

Fredonia came from behind in thrilling fashion, with a fourth quarter comeback sparked by Davion White's re-emergence as Fredonia's quarterback for the first time since he had been wheeled off the Orange Bowl field on a stretcher as a precaution after sustaining a neck injury.

In a game that was fought hard until the end, the Marauders' new head coach, Gomez, earned Fredonia's respect. Many Fredonia players came over to show love to Gomez after his first Dunkirk-Fredonia rivalry game as a coach, following his playing days at Dunkirk a decade prior.

"This is what you love. It's the Dunkirk-Fredonia history," Gomez said.

But aside from the gesture, the storyline was White, who led the Hillbillies to the comeback against the school he grew up rooting for. Born and raised in Dunkirk, White transferred to Fredonia as a sophomore. He spoke to his reasons for the move after he led Fredonia to a win in his final Dunkirk-Fredonia basketball game on Fredonia grounds. The two teams meet again in Dunkirk on Feb. 2.

"It's my rival school, I grew up there," White said of Dunkirk. "It's always nice to go out and show them why I came to another school, to dominate every single day."

White said he came to Fredonia because he needed a change. He said, "I was with the same type of program for nine years. I needed a change, I found something new and I found something I like. I found where I fit."

Unlike in boys basketball and football, where Fredonia has dominated in recent years, the games have been more evenly split in other sports. Specifically, girls basketball games between the two teams have been more balanced, with each side claiming victories in recent years. Dunkirk won 45-30 at home last January, while Fredonia won 39-30 at home the following month.

After her first Dunkirk-Fredonia victory as head coach of Fredonia last year, coming off a losing streak, Brianne Flowers said, "This is my first year at Fredonia, so this is my first time in this atmosphere, and it is awesome. Beating your rival is always fun, but getting a win after a long stretch of losing is always good, no matter who it is. It's extra good when it's Dunkirk."

The first matchup between the two girls basketball teams this season, held Friday at Dunkirk High School, was on Dunkirk's minds more than a week in advance. After a loss to Silver Creek on Jan. 3, Dunkirk girls basketball head coach Quinn Bankoski said her team needed to be mentally tougher and more prepared. Bankoski said, "Fredonia's going to be 100 times worse ... so we need to get ready for that."

A year ago, even after a loss, Bankoski credited the crowd for the atmosphere it provided for her players. "I love to see the fans getting crazy and loud. I think it gives a lot of energy to the kids on the floor," Bankoski said. "I'm glad that we had a great turnout from fans. Everybody was super supportive for our girls, they always have been."

During the spring, the two schools' baseball and softball teams have both been competitive, resulting in some of the most thrilling contests across the region in recent years.

A monumental win for the Dunkirk baseball program came in the spring of 2019 when Peyton Ahlstrom out-dueled Trey Swartz, in an instant classic. The game was played at the Chestnut Street field across from the Wheelock campus, in a matchup featuring each team's ace pitcher. After Ahlstrom drilled Swartz with a pitch in his first at-bat, tempers flared and fans were urged to calm down. The tension was at an all-time high, but the tempers eventually simmered down to witness a game that will last in the memory of fans for decades.

"We brought the kids together in the third inning and told them not to think about anything else -- not any interference from anybody here -- and play baseball," said Dunkirk baseball coach Frank Jagoda. "These guys settled down, they got their mind right, and they played good, solid baseball."

The game was tied 2-2 in the third inning when both pitchers locked in. Each pitcher took his team as far as he could before the pitch count forced a move for each side. Swartz departed after six innings with just one walk and eight strikeouts, while Ahlstrom lasted until he recorded the second out of the bottom of the eighth inning, when he struck out Swartz for his 10th strikeout of the game. He took a lap around the mound and shouted in celebration before he was relieved by Jared Glowniak, who recorded the final out after Alec Schrader slipped while rounding second base.

The victory was monumental for Dunkirk as it snapped a streak of 13 straight losses to Fredonia dating back to 2012.

"I've been in this rivalry since 1970, since Little League. I've been in this for 50 years, and the bottom line is it's Dunkirk-Fredonia. It's always good to beat them," Jagoda said.

Now, in back-to-back years, the home baseball team has won each contest.

In softball, under the leadership of former varsity head coach Michelle Gilmour, Dunkirk softball was among the league's best, battling year after year with Fredonia and Chautauqua Lake for supremacy of arguably the toughest league in western New York. In May of 2019, at the same time as Dunkirk played in a Sectional Championship game in Class B1 at Williamsville North High School, Fredonia played across the campus in Class B2.

Across sports, when the two teams were in the same playoff brackets, they came together for some epic contests.

The Dunkirk-Fredonia rivalry was at its peak when the two schools met in what ended up being former Fredonia girls basketball coach Carol Zirkle's final meeting with Dunkirk in the Class B Crossover game at Buffalo State University. Fredonia won the contest to advance to the Far West Regional, which was Zirkle's final game leading the Fredonia varsity girls basketball program.

The same could be said for the importance of a football contest between Dunkirk and Fredonia in 2018. In the final matchup as members of the same division, Dunkirk and Fredonia met at the Orange Bowl in 2018 with matching undefeated records. A division title and a home playoff game were at stake, along with a perfect record.

Former Dunkirk head football coach and Athletic Director Mike Sarratori said of the importance of the matchup at the time, "It's something we're going to remember for the rest of our lives. ... It doesn't matter what our records are. It doesn't matter that we're playing for the division title. Those things just add to it. This is a game our kids are going to remember for many years."

Fredonia won the contest 35-6 and has won every meeting between the two teams since.

Between changing of leagues and classifications due to enrollment, Fredonia and Dunkirk are often split up in postseason play. Football games between the two teams are now non-league games, carrying no weight in the playoff picture. In some sports, many teams in the region are formed by merging many schools together, which softens the impact of many rivalries.

"It's something that, unfortunately in today's age with mergers, is sort of lost," Bertrando said of many rivalries.

But Dunkirk-Fredonia withstands it all.

Many of the players are teammates in the other seasons not affiliated with their official school team. Players interact on social media, often liking each other's posts, photos or videos, highlighting their rival's successes on or off the field of competition. When Dunkirk or Fredonia advance deep in the playoffs, their rival fans often make the trip to cheer on their rival, rather than against them as many in the community would say was the case back in their day.

But in some ways, all of that makes the rivalry even better. While so many other rivalries have died over the years, Dunkirk-Fredonia has evolved.

Still, no matter what any coach will try to tell their team in the moment, everyone knows when those two schools meet, although it counts all the same, it matters just a little bit more.

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