With star QB returning for sophomore season, Fort Cherry looks to keep climbing

By: Antonio Rossetti
Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | 11:01 PM

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Ever since suffering through a winless season four years ago, Fort Cherry has been on an upward trajectory.

Last year, the Rangers won eight games and picked up a playoff victory to boot.

Fort Cherry’s offense made a statement last year, scoring over 40 points seven times and averaging 37 points per game. The favorite moment of the season for sophomore quarterback Matt Sieg, who started as a freshman, was defeating rival Burgettstown.

“It was probably one of the best games I’ve ever played,” Sieg said. “It was so fun. It was away too. Their crowd was impressive. It was packed. I played against my cousin (Brodie Kuzior) too. He was their quarterback that game. It was huge, and it was a great experience.”

Sieg had quite the first season, rushing for 1,955, throwing for 984 yards and tallying 37 total touchdowns.

Tanner Garry, who is going into his fourth season as Rangers coach, was impressed with not only Sieg’s play but his composure as well.

“He took all of the hype and all of the hope that we had for him, and he really ran with it,” Garry said. “He was a leader for us as a freshman, and he obviously did some great things last year and stayed humble throughout the entire process. He’s a very coachable kid, and he’s someone that really just tries to find ways to get better every day.”

During summer workouts, Garry said he saw Sieg’s motivation to get even better in 2023.

“He doesn’t just rest on the fact that he had a good freshman year, and he’s just kind of put it into neutral. He’s still trying to find ways to get better,” Garry said “He is taking a step in the right direction. He’s matured physically. He’s matured mentally. He’s really someone that we think is going to be able to lead us again this year.”

Sieg isn’t the only one motivated for this season. The entire Rangers roster is ready to get back to the playoffs. Garry said that the team learned a lot from last season, especially after their playoff loss to Rochester.

“It’s one thing to feel the feeling of a playoff win, it feels good, but a second-round playoff loss hurts a lot more than that win we had in round one,” Garry said. “I think that that the learning points really came from that second game because it’s things that we need to fix and things that we’re going to be able to learn from.”

Lou Ryan, who had 128 total tackles last season, believes that last year’s playoff loss is something that stung, but gives the team more motivation this year.

“I’ve always felt you need the losses before the wins,” Ryan said. “You need a punch in your jaw sometimes and you have to bounce back from it. Man, I learned something from that. Everybody on our team, we had a game plan going into Rochester, and we didn’t execute it to the best of our ability and that’s what happened. Now we know that next year, we got to go. We get in that situation again, there’s no turning back.”

In terms of getting back to that point, Fort Cherry plans on using its experience and physicality to its advantage. The Rangers have a lot to look forward to with 13 seniors on the roster.

“There’s a lot of senior involvement,” Ryan said. “You’re in the weight room, and you won’t see as many coaches because, boom, we have 13 12th graders running around here teaching everybody how to do things. It’s just you set the tone as an upperclassman. We’re setting the tone.”

Five of those seniors are on the offensive line. Ryan, Anthony Salvini, Ian Mawhinney, Brayden Kirby and Jonah Pfender will be returning to the trenches. All have been playing side by side throughout their high school careers.

“Anyone who talks football will tell you that it really all starts up front, and it’s no different for our team,” Garry said. “We have a really good core group of lineman that help with Matt, Nate and Ethan running. It gives us a very good ability to remain balanced.”

Nathan Heirendt, who rushed for 596 yards, and Ethan Faletto, who rushed for 733 yards, combined for over 3,000 yards total in rushing with Sieg.

Ryan looks forward to having one last go-around with his fellow offensive linemen.

“You run for over 200 yards on a team, it takes the soul out of them,” Ryan said. “You get 15 minutes running the clock down and the ball down their throats, it pushes people back. It gets them on their heels. They don’t know what to do. You’re destroying them. We had 3,500 yards rushing last year as a team. It was pretty ridiculous.”

Sieg can’t wait to step on the field behind an experienced line. He said that their strength from being in the weight room through the years will give them an edge, and he said that they’ll be “moving people.” However, strength isn’t the only thing going for them.

“They’re really going to know the playbook inside and out,” Sieg said. “We also have a few new receivers coming up that we think will do a lot for us.”

He said Shane Cornali is poised to have another strong season at receiver and cornerback. Sieg also said that Kirby has looked especially impressive on the line. Sieg, Ryan and Garry also said that Braydon Cook is set to have an outstanding year. Cook had over 400 yards receiving and tallied four touchdowns last year.

In terms of the entire senior class, Sieg sees a group of leaders.

“The senior class, they’ve been great,” Sieg said. “They’ve worked so hard from the day they walked in here freshman year with the new coaching staff and really just rebuilding this program and taking it from what we were.”

Garry, a former star quarterback at Fort Cherry, expects to see a gritty team that plays to the whistle and is focused on smashmouth football.

“We hang our hat on being physical,” Garry said. “We let the skill players go from there, but physicality is the biggest thing that we really preach. We’ve kind of had that hammered into their head for four years so they know that it starts with physicality. It’s the football we like to play.”

Both Sieg and Ryan are all in for the 2023 season.

“Everybody’s bought in,” Sieg said. “We’ve had good numbers up at every workout and we’re working hard. No matter what the temperature, it’s been hot recently, everybody’s still up here grinding.”

Ryan added how tight knit the team is and how team chemistry has created a brotherhood at Fort Cherry.

“We got our little team group chat. I could just send out a text message, ‘Hey, guys, let’s go play Wiffle ball here at 3:30,’” Ryan said. “Everybody’s showing up. It’s just the whole team aspect of it. Everybody’s in. Everybody’s strapped in there, ready for the ride. We’re all brothers this year.”

Fort Cherry

Coach: Tanner Garry

2022 record: 8-4, 5-2 in Class A Black Hills Conference

All-time record: 358-263-15

SCHEDULE

Date, Opponent, Time

8.25 at Northgate, 7

9.1 Carmichaels, 7

9.8 at Beth-Center, 7

9.15 at Chartiers-Houston*, 7

9.22 Our Lady of the Sacred Heart*, 7

9.30 at Bishop Canevin*, 7

10.6 at Avella*, 7

10.13 Cornell*, 7

10.20 at Carlynton*, 7

10.27 Burgettstown*, 7

*Conference game

STATISTICAL LEADERS

Passing: Matt Sieg

984 yards, 5 TDs

Rushing: Matt Sieg

1,995 yards, 32 TDs

Receiving: Shane Cornali

550 yards, 5 TDs

FAST FACTS

• Coaches Tanner Garry and Corey Garry played football together at Slippery Rock in 2017. Tanner started his collegiate career at Bowling Green and then transferred to Youngstown State and Corey started his collegiate career at Robert Morris.

• Fort Cherry’s football field is named after Jim Garry, the grandfather of the Garrys. Jim coached Fort Cherry for 43 seasons, and his son Tim also coached the team as a head coach. Tim helps Tanner with the team now.

• Before Rushel Shell III broke the WPIAL record, Mike Vernillo held the all-time rushing record with 7,646 yards over his four seasons for the Rangers.

• Tanner Garry holds the record for passing yards at Fort Cherry with 4,502.

Tags: Fort Cherry