VOORHEESVILLE — The excitement continues to build for the Voorheesville football team as it strives to complete its mission for an undefeated season in 2014. Last Saturday’s 36-to-20 win over Ichabod Crane took the Blackbirds to 6-0 in Class C with one regular-season game remaining.

A victory over winless Stillwater (0-6) this Saturday at home would give Voorheesville its first unbeaten regular season since 1966.

“That’s good stuff,” Birds’ Head Coach Joe Sapienza said after beating Ichabod Crane. “From a historical perspective, there are still a lot of people in the community who played on that [1966] team. It’s cool.”

One of Voorheesville’s current assistant coaches, Jim Duncan, played on the 1966 team, which had a 7-0 record. Tom Buckley was the head coach; the Birds’ football field is named after him.

Senior David Cardona, who had eight tackles against Ichabod Crane as part of Voorheesville’s stalwart defense — which gives up only 11.7 points per game — said that every single player on the team feels the same way about wanting to go undefeated. “We have to keep that same mentality each week,” he said. “We keep it moving forward.”

Do the Voorheesville players feel any pressure?

“Actually, it’s the opposite,” said senior running back Matt Feller, who had 204 yards on 29 carries and a touchdown last Saturday; he has just under 900 rushing yards on the season. “We feel relief that we know how to get the job done. We know what we’re doing out here.”

“It fires the team up even more,” added senior Andrew Waldbillig, who had 10 tackles and a fumble recovery against Ichabod Crane (0-6).

Voorheesville’s regular-season schedule was front-loaded. The difficult games came in the beginning, but now the Blackbirds are playing opponents that won’t be in the playoffs.

“The excitement builds every week, but you’re going to get everyone’s best shot,” Sapienza said. “They’re playing just to get a win, to jump-start their season.”

The Riders tried a surprise onside kick against Voorheesville, and also pulled a reverse during a kickoff return.

Sapienza told The Enterprise that he keeps finding ways that Voorheesville can get better. “At the end, we want to be at the top, which means we still need to improve,” he said.

Feller said that the Blackbirds like to focus on the little things. “We know that we can beat teams, so we’re looking for those minute details to get perfection,” he said. “You can always block better, run better, throw the ball better, so, we’re just trying to get better at everything each week.”

Cardona pointed to mental mistakes, and Sapienza later elaborated. “We could do better with going for the ball in the [defensive] secondary,” he said. “Sometimes, we wait for the receiver to catch the ball instead of being aggressive before the catch. Also, sometimes we get out of our offensive rhythm — we’ll execute really well for a quarter, and then hit a lull.”

It was looking like a walk in the park for Voorheesville in the second quarter, when the Birds were ahead, 15 to 0, but then Sean Daly had a catch and run for the Riders of 54 yards for a touchdown, breaking away from Ian Kundel’s coverage. Early in the third quarter, the Birds missed some tackles as Zach Herbst ran 42 yards for a score.

“We don’t want to do that,” Sapienza said of Ichabod Crane’s minor comebacks. “That needs to be fixed. Maybe it’s like, ‘Oh, we got this,’ but we want to put these teams away.”

However, Voorheesville’s offense looked great for most of the day. Shane Parry and Zach Childs had talented touchdown catches, and Feller ran like a beast on a particular drive in the fourth quarter, refusing to be brought down. At times, Feller was running ahead of his blocks.

“Once you get through the line, the blocks are all set up, and, if I get wrapped up, I just try to break the tackles,” Feller said. “That’s my job. It’s what I do.”

Basically, Feller is a solid machine when it comes to running the ball. He reads what the defense gives, and explodes in the other direction.

“He takes it over; he can’t be denied,” said Sapienza. “It’s mindset, and attitude of not thinking that anyone can tackle you, and he gets into that. He can have those punishing, devastating runs.”

But, Feller is just one of the many pieces for Voorheesville. Overall — offense, defense, and special teams — the Blackbirds have one of the most balanced football teams in Section 2.

“You just have to stay in your own routine; everyone has their own routine,” Waldbillig said.

Voorheesville is a power football team that uses its finesse wisely. The Birds’ options abound.

“We feel really positive about all of our aspects,” said Sapienza. “There’s so many things that we do well, but identifying the things that need a fix could take us to the next level.”

Sapienza talked about getting to the next level after a comeback victory over Mechanicville in Week 3. Voorheesville last won a sectional title in 1998.

“We’re confident going into every single game, but we don’t take anything for granted,” Cardona said. “We’ve gotten off to some slow starts, but that doesn’t worry us because we know what kind of team we are — a championship kind of team.”