The Fort Cherry School District has canceled classes for Thursday, but the reason for it has nothing to do with snow, freezing rain or frigid temperatures.
After weathering yet another opponent’s storm, the Rangers will play for a state football title for the first time in school history at 1 p.m. Thursday.
It has been a memorable season for Fort Cherry (15-0), which is less than two weeks removed from winning its first WPIAL title. But now comes the team’s biggest test to date, a battle with defending champion Steelton-Highspire (15-0), which has won 27 games in a row and is aiming to win a third title in four seasons and fifth overall. The teams will meet for the PIAA Class 1A title at Cumberland Valley High School.
“The fact that we’re playing for a state championship is something that hasn’t fully hit me yet,” Fort Cherry coach Tanner Garry said Monday. “To be honest, I don’t know if winning the WPIAL championship has fully hit me. You don’t get a chance to breathe. It’s just onto the next week.”
This week, Fort Cherry faces a major challenge in trying to keep Alex Erby from throwing all over the Rangers just like he does against everybody else. Erby, a 6-foot-2, 205-pound senior quarterback, has thrown for more career yards and touchdowns than anyone else in state history. Erby broke both records this season. His 13,227 passing yards bettered the previous mark held by South Fayette graduate Brett Brumbaugh (11,084 yards) and his 170 touchdown passes topped the record previously held by Central Martinsburg graduate Jeff Hoenstine (146).
Erby has saved his best for last. This season, the southpaw and Navy recruit (there’s some irony there considering Navy is such a run-heavy team) has completed 76% of his passes (228 of 297) for 4,084 yards and 56 touchdowns to just three interceptions. Erby will now try to end his high school career by doing something he has done two previous times. That’s beating a WPIAL team for a state title. As a freshman in 2020, Erby helped Steelton-Highspire defeat Jeannette, 32-20, and as a junior last season he led the Steamrollers to a 22-8 win over Union.
“His poise stands out more than anything. As someone who played quarterback, I can definitely appreciate a kid that can stay in the pocket and not get flustered,” said Garry, a former standout quarterback at Fort Cherry and then Slippery Rock University. “You can tell he has a lot of games under his belt. He’s very accurate and has a strong arm.”
Steelton-Highspire, the District 3 champion located near Harrisburg, is not short on Erbys. Alex’s twin brother, Andrew, is a 6-foot-4, 290-pound lineman and Ohio recruit who also had offers from the likes of Penn State and West Virginia. Their father, also named Andrew, is the team’s coach.
Two of Alex Erby’s top targets have been senior wide receivers Durrell Ceasar and Jaeion Perry. Ceasar had six catches for 79 yards and a touchdown and Perry five catches for 119 yards and a touchdown in a 48-21 semifinal win against South Williamsport. Perry also had a 70-yard touchdown run. Senior running back Ronald Burnette ran for 113 yards and two touchdowns for the Steamrollers, who average 45.3 points per game.
While Alex Erby might be the biggest name, at least statewide, in this game, Fort Cherry has a superstar itself in sophomore quarterback Matt Sieg. Sieg has completed 82-of-146 passes for 1,650 yards and 20 touchdowns to just three interceptions for a team that averages 44.5 points a game. And he has made an even bigger impact on the ground, running for 2,234 yards and 39 touchdowns on 227 carries, an average of nearly 10 yards a tote. Sieg, whose list of scholarship offers include Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia, ran for 258 yards and four touchdowns in a 33-23 semifinal win against Redbank Valley. The Rangers trailed Redbank Valley, 16-13, after three quarters before using a 20-point fourth quarter to capture the win.
“It’s something that we don’t take for granted,” Garry said of the excellence of Sieg, who has rushed for 4,219 yards in just two seasons. “He’s a sophomore who continues to rise to the occasion. He runs the ball 25 times a game. He’s taking the punishment, but he dishes it out, too. He doesn’t blink at any type of pressure.”
Junior running back Ethan Faletto has collected 1,188 yards and 18 touchdowns on 149 carries (7.9 yards per carry), while junior wide receiver Shane Cornali (34 receptions, 672 yards, 8 touchdowns) has been Sieg’s top target.
As always, winning the battle in the trenches will be key, and Fort Cherry has quite a bit of talent there. Seniors Louis Ryan and Brayden Kirby were all-conference picks on both sides of the ball. Ryan, a linebacker, is second on the team with 120 tackles, and Kirby, a lineman, is third with 92. Senior linebacker Cory Bouchelle, another all-conference selection, has registered a team-best 122 tackles.
In a season when Fort Cherry has been able to call itself WPIAL champion for the first time, the Rangers now get their first opportunity to be known as PIAA champions. It may be Fort Cherry’s first time playing in the state final, but the Rangers hope to be back again soon.
“For a school that had never won a WPIAL title to then add a state championship, it would be like, ‘Is this really happening?’” Garry said. “There are programs that have great years, but our goal is to not let this be something that only happens once in a blue moon. We have to keep trying to find ways to improve every year. I think this group has done a great job of not letting the moment get too big for them.”
That’s a good thing for the Rangers because on Thursday, the moment will be as big as it has ever been.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.