OBSERVER File Photo Dunkirk’s Alton Ingram (42) will look to help lead the Marauders to the Section VI Class B football title tonight against Cheektowaga at New Era Field, in Orchard Park.

The Dunkirk Marauders (7-2) will look to get a bit of redemption later today, as they will take on the Cheektowaga Warriors (9-0) for the Section VI Class B football title at New Era Field at 6:30 p.m.

“We lost by 13 to them,” Dunkirk head coach Mike Sarratori noted of his team’s Week 1 matchup against Cheektowaga. “But it was closer than the score. We had a couple of miscues on special teams and we’re confident we can stick with them and see what happens.”

And there is no reason to think the Marauders will be lacking any confidence either, as they have won their last seven games, none of which were remotely close on the scoreboard.

“I don’t think it will help at all,” Cheektowaga head coach Mike Fatta said, referring to his team’s win the opening week of the season. “I was just telling (Sarratori) that they look great and that they’re playing better than anyone, including us. They beat a Maryvale team by about 60, that we beat in overtime, so we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

After starting the season 0-2, Dunkirk started winning and hasn’t stopped, as they won enough games to earn the right to host their first-ever Sectional playoff game.

“It’s not even the same team,” Sarratori said of the difference between how his Marauders played the first two weeks and how they have played during their win streak. “The first two games that we lost, we had chances to win both. Against Cheektowaga, you can’t make mistakes like we did against them. That’s a fantastic team with a fantastic coach over there, so when you make mistakes, they’re going to jump on them, and that’s what they did over there, and it was still a close game. The second game, against Olean, if you look at stats, if you look at anything about that game, we shouldn’t have lost. But again, we beat ourselves. After that point in the season, we haven’t really beat ourselves too much. We’ve been keeping it basic, the kids have been gaining confidence and as they gained confidence, we started to get on a roll.”

The crux of Dunkirk’s win streak is in its running game, which is led by senior Alton Ingram, who has rushed for a team-high 943 yards on 117 carries while scoring 13 touchdowns.

“They run the ball hard and we’re going to have to tackle them,” Fatta said. “Trust me, we’ve got a task at hand there. And they run the play action and can throw the ball, too. They’re tough to stop, but I think it’s going to be a good one.”

Ingram’s ability to rush the ball is not the only thing that has made the Marauders tough to stop for the past two months, however, as junior Isiah Velez has accumulated 416 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground while fellow junior Juan Damas has 410 yards on 51 carries and nine touchdowns. He’s also caught 16 passes for 298 yards while adding four more scores.

“I think they’re just doing things better,” Fatta said of the changes he’s seen in Dunkirk since the two teams met on Friday, Sept. 2. “I don’t know how young they are, but that was a close game Week 1. It was a couple plays here and there and we won by maybe 10 points or something, but it could have gone either way. We had a couple opportune plays, but that’s Week 1 and you can throw Week 1 out every year. Week 1 is a lifetime ago, it really is.”

Offensively, Dunkirk has averaged 42.14 points per game during their win streak while on defense, the Marauders have allowed just 3.71.

“I think they’ve given up twenty-something points since Week 2, so it’s going to be tough, it’s going to be a battle,” Fatta said. “Hopefully it’s a good game and we’ll try to take what they give us, but they don’t give you much over there.”

It may be a battle, and even with the recent success his team has had, Sarratori knows not to expect his team to be able to stop the offense of the two-time defending Class B champion the way it has been able to stop every other team it has faced this year.

“That’s a good football team,” Sarratori said of the Warriors. “They have talent all over the field, size all over the field and speed all over the field. I don’t see too many weaknesses there. That’s a solid team and it’s going to take everything we have just to stay with them.

“We’re not going to shut down that whole offense,” Sarratori added. “With their quarterback and their top receiver, that’s a pretty dangerous combo and they have compliments off that, so we just have to limit the big plays, try not to let the big plays happen and the best defense we can have is keeping our offense on the field. And that’s our game plan.”

What makes the Warriors’ offense go is their dual-threat quarterback, senior Eric Bartnik, who has completed 151 of 253 passes for 1,936 yards and 21 touchdowns while adding 585 yards on 87 rushes on the ground, chipping in another nine touchdowns.

“Eric really drives everything we do,” Fatta said. “He’s smart, he knows how to make decisions and read his keys. And he sees the defense and makes his checks and he knows how to throw hot off stuff. He’s real smart and he can run the ball as well.”

“Like I said, he’s the focal point of everything we do,” Fatta added. “He throws the ball real well, we have a host of good receivers and a good running back, so we really feel like we try to take what (the opponents) give us and when it’s all said and done, even if he’s getting rushed, he can take off after he’s getting pressured.”

Looking to get after Bartnik, his top receiver Stephan Parker (63 receptions for 876 yards and eight touchdowns), as well as top running backs Seven Turpin (104 rushes for 616 yards and 10 touchdowns) and Michael Gray (60 carries for 633 yards and six touchdowns) will be a defensive that has held teams to just 144.4 yards per game (3.2 yards/rush and 4.5 yards per reception).

“They know they have their work cut out for them,” Fatta said of his offense. “We watched some film (Monday) and as (the coaches) are, they’re impressed with how well they come off the ball and they know physically it’s going to be a battle.”

Leading the Dunkirk defense all year have been seniors Elwin Gomez, Chauval Black, Andrew Vetter, a finally-healthy Nick Jones and Ingram. Black is tied for the team-high in sacks with Dontrell Clemons at four while he’s added 37.5 tackles, including 12 tackles for a loss. When things get tough, which hasn’t happened all that much the last seven games, Sarratori knows that he can go to Gomez, Ingram and Jones to pull his team back up by its collective boot straps.

“They’re vocal when they have to be, they’re good football players and they give it everything they have,” Sarratori said. “When something needs to be said, they will do it for me. They know exactly the way I’m thinking and are on the same page as me. I trust them totally.”

And by all indications, their teammates trust them totally as well, which has surely helped turn the Marauders from a struggling program into a Sectional title contender in just three season.

“I was taking over a pretty unlucky program at that time,” Sarratori said. “We didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t know too much about the kids as players. And they didn’t know anything about me (as a coach). But the kids have really dedicated themselves, so am I surprised we’re doing so well? No, because the kids have dedicated themselves, but being here (at New Era Field), this is just a dream come true for the kids and myself. We didn’t even think about it, but like I’ve said, these kids really deserve it.”

Win or lose today, Sarratori knows that his team will have all the support from its community that it could ask for, as pre-sale tickets sold out quickly this week.

“It’s been the last three years, since we started to play better,” Sarratori said when asked about the support his team has received from the community, former players and alumni. “They’ve really taken an interest in our program and we have support everywhere we go. People have been coming to our practices and all of the alumni have been calling, texting and emailing for the last three weeks now. It’s kind of a weird thing, but this football team has maybe brought the community together. I’ve been teaching for 26 years in Dunkirk and I’ve never seen or felt anything like this before. The community seems to be really coming together, and if that’s a byproduct of the football team, that’s fantastic.”