The Marauders completely flipped a switch in the postseason, however, with back-to-back wins over Lew-Port, 38-20, and Burgard, 20-8, to claim the Chuck Funke Bowl title for Class B. Dunkirk finished with a 3-6 record overall.

KEY LOSSES: Dunkirk loses a lot of key members from last season’s team, including starting quarterback Javier DeJesus and four offensive linemen — Jim Bautista, Sebastian DeGolier, Champ Texidor and Jaxson Pencek. Another huge loss for Dunkirk is the transfer of Ted Roberts, who scored seven touchdowns last season. Roberts will play for St. Francis this season.

“Our attitude is outstanding. We’ve got some good kids,” said Benton. “We started to mold this attitude a year ago and everything is just so much better this year. … It has been very enjoyable so far in preseason to come to practice every day.”

Five starters return to Dunkirk from last season’s team, highlighted by one of the top running backs in Western New York, Quanteer Neallard. After rushing for more than 1,000 yards as a junior, Neallard will be the focal point of the Dunkirk offense again.

Linemen, pictured in front row, from left, are Dante Donato, Nathaniel Garcia and Jonathan Ortiz. In the back row are Nicholas Solares, Conner Jakubowicz and Ruben Santos.

Noah Sikes will be the starting quarterback after filling in for DeJesus at times last season. Another key returner will be Mike Hanlon, who started in the secondary last year.

“He is definitely a key. … He’s a tough kid,” said Benton of Hanlon. Other key returners Benton highlighted are linemen Conner Jakubowicz and Nate Garcia.

Dunkirk will field a roster of mostly juniors this season, many of whom played at the junior varsity level last season.

“We’re going to try to win with juniors and sophomores, with a few seniors,” said Benton. “We should be decent this year and we should be better next year.”

OUTLOOK FOR CLASS B2: “We lost some very tough teams with Iroquois, West Seneca East and Pioneer, but Falconer/Cassadaga Valley/Maple Grove all combined will be tough. They are going to be a lot tougher than people think,” said Benton. “Cheektowaga and Maryvale aren’t quite Iroquois, but they are still good. There’s really not a team on there where you can say ‘We should be able to win that game.’ Every one of them, we might win by six, we might lose by six, I don’t know. I think we’ll be very competitive, I just don’t know where the wins are going to fall this year.”

Backs and receivers, pictured, from left, are Noah Sikes, Dylan Bankoski, Quanteer Neallard, Bryan Thurston, Jareese Gaines and Michael Hanlon.

KEY GAME: Dunkirk opens the season at Lake Shore at 6:30 tonight on the first night of high school football in Section VI. Lake Shore was the only regular season victory for Dunkirk a year ago, before two postseason wins in the Chuck Funke Bowl.

Weeks 2-7 are Class B2 games, while the season bookends are non-league games. In weeks 4-7, Dunkirk has a stretch of three out of four games at home before a matchup with rival Fredonia in Week 8 to end the regular season.

“The kids will say Fredonia. That’s so obvious,” said Benton of a key matchup of the year. Benton, however, has a different opponent circled after a thrilling contest was decided on the final play a year ago.

“We owe East Aurora. Losing on the goal-line last year, we’d like to go back and try to get that one back. That’s personal,” said Benton.

SENIORS: Kyshaun Gibson, Alex Jackson, Siera Jacques, Quanteer Neallard, Xavier Ortiz, Felix Rosario, Miguel Santiago, Ruben Santos, Noah Sikes

JUNIORS: Trestin Briggs, Nate Carlson, Donte Donato, Nate Garcia, Mike Hanlon, Christian Hernandez, Don Jackson, Connor Jakubowicz, Jonathan Ortiz, Angel Rosa-Cruz, Ian Schulenberg, Mekiah Sedlacek, Nick Solares, Bryan Thurston, Frank Wilson.

SOPHOMORES: Dylan Bankoski, Jareese Gaines, Sincere Sellers