Dunkirk’s Mark Milliman (7) makes a tackle during a game earlier this season in Dunkirk. The Dunkirk Marauders face a huge game on the road at Class B2 foe Iroquois tonight. OBSERVER Photo by Ron Szot.

In what will be their most important match up of the season so far, the Dunkirk Marauders enter their Week 6 game with something that has been a rarity so far this season: No new injuries to report entering the week.

While the numerous Marauders players who are banged up — including Earl Stewart and Gavin Cave — aren’t close to returning, the players who have been forced to step in (mostly sophomores) remain healthy. Dunkirk coach Mike Sarratori knows that the health of his team is crucial for success.

“It was a great week of practice. No one got hurt,” Sarratori said.

The sudden stopper in the drain of Dunkirk’s injuries came at a fortuitous time for the Marauders, as they’ll face their toughest test of the season, the Iroquois Chiefs. The two teams are tied for second in the Class B-2 division, and the similarities between the teams don’t end there.

“They’re very young with good size, just like us. They’ve got a sophomore quarterback and a sophomore center, and most of their team is sophomores and juniors. We’re almost identical. They’ll be the biggest and strongest team we’ve faced all year,” Sarratori said.

The game carries a little bit of extra weight for both sides as well, as whoever wins will secure their spot in the playoffs, making the game itself essentially a playoff game. Despite the extra weight on the contest Sarratori said the game plan will remain status quo.

“The game plan doesn’t change at all. If we play our game and make fewer mistakes than them, we’ll be fine,” Sarratori said.

The mistakes the Marauders have made through the course of the season have been the biggest focal point in what Sarratori and his staff have been trying to improve. While their defense has been nothing but stout — posting back to back shutouts in their last two games — the offense looks for a bit more consistency, which they may have finally found in their 36-0 defeat of Maryvale last Friday night. With the team relying on mostly younger kids, it would make sense the progression would take time, but Sarratori sees his kids growing as every game passes.

“Every week they’re going to get better. We did a lot of mental preparation and walkthroughs this week, we just can’t afford to get anyone else hurt,” Sarratori said.

While the offense looks to limit mistakes and work on slight adjustments in the game plan, it’s the team’s defense that needs to do what it has done all season and shut the opposing offense down. While a lot of the sophomores filling in on offense are the big contributers on defense as well, the defensive leader for the Dunkirk Marauders has been edge rusher Mark Milliman, who has seven sacks on the season. Due to the injuries, Milliman may find himself in a slightly different role tonight.

“We’re going to work with Mark (Milliman) on running a little bit. With the injuries we’ve had, we’ve been trying to give him some looks there and get him involved. He hasn’t played there this year,” Sarratori said.

Milliman, who did have a single carry for five yards in the win over Maryvale, will potentially share the backfield with Dunkirk’s biggest offensive bright spot in Chris Ortiz and new comer Mateo Janzcylik, in a game where the offense’s biggest task will be to maintain possession of the ball and be on the field as much as possible.

“As long as we do that and eliminate our mental mistakes, we’ll be good,” Sarratori said.

The Marauders (4-1, 2-1) will make the trip to Iroquois (4-1, 2-1) on Friday night for a 7 p.m. kickoff.