Fort Cherry’s PIAA win is long time in works
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Owen Norman finds an opening to pass beyond West Middlesex defenders. Norman was one of the driving forces behind the most successful basketball season at Fort Cherry since 1961. He averaged 17.7 points per game during the regular season and had a 40-point game in the postseason.
Dylan Rogers
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
West Middlesex’s Giovanni Rococi, right, makes a last-ditch effort to stop Fort Cherry’s Dylan Rogers as he drives for the score that put the Rangers up 57-48 with one minute to go in the PIAA Class 2A first-round playoff game Wednesday night.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry’s Owen Norman was one of the driving forces behind the most successful basketball season at Fort Cherry since 1961. Norman averaged 17.7 points per game during the regular season and had a 40-point game in the postseason.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry's Dylan Rogers passes Luke Mild of West Middlesex on the way to the basket.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry's Maddox Truschel lays in two of the 15 points he scored in the Rangers' 61-53 victory over West Middlesex.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Owen Norman drives the Rangers' offense during first-half action of the PIAA Class 2A playoff game against West Middlesex
McDONALD – “The winningest team in school history is in this locker room right now.”
That’s how Fort Cherry coach Eugene Briggs opened his postgame speech after the Rangers’ 61-53 PIAA Class 2A tournament win over West Middlesex of District 10 Wednesday night.
It’s fitting that the Rangers scored 61 points because 1961 was the last time that Fort Cherry had played in a state playoff game, among other things.
It’s also fitting that Fort Cherry’s high scorer, Owen Norman, finished with 24 points because 24 was the magic number the Rangers had to get to break the 1961 team’s school record for wins.
It felt good to make history.
“I take a lot of pride in that,” said Fort Cherry senior Maddox Truschel, who finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds. “Especially with the season we’ve had, that just adds on to our accolades. It’s just awesome to be a part of this team.”
Briggs was a little more subdued.
“It’s nice,” Briggs said, “but they really don’t seem like they’re satisfied.”
The Rangers got a much-needed bounce-back game from Norman. The junior scored only four points and went 1-for-11 from the field in Saturday’s WPIAL championship loss to Our Lady of Sacred Heart and was much better Wednesday night, scoring 24 to tie for the game-high with West Middlesex’s Richie Preston.
For Briggs, Norman’s lack of points against OLSH was more due to the quality of competition than anything negative on Norman’s end.
“He really didn’t struggle in that OLSH game,” Briggs said. “It’s just they did a good job of following him. He was getting normal opportunities, but (he had to) finish and had all that size in front of him. Tonight, he just had one guy with size, and he was able to get by him.”
Norman felt he had a smoother path to scoring.
“It felt, I don’t want to say ‘easier’ tonight but a lot easier to get shots off,” Norman said. “OLSH is obviously just long. They’re everything. This team, they have some big kids, but it was just easier to finish around the rim, getting shots over people and just getting buckets.”
Although Fort Cherry had a 19-11 lead after the first quarter, Briggs was hardly satisfied because of his team’s inability to finish at the rim.
“We were getting so many easy looks and didn’t finish,” Briggs said. “We could have had the game over in the first quarter.”
Instead, West Middlesex stayed in the game.
An eight-point deficit at the end of the first quarter turned into a five-point deficit at halftime, and then a two-point deficit entering the final period.
Finally, on the first possession of the fourth quarter, a three by West Middlesex’s Tanner Shick – one of four as he finished with 12 points – put the visitors ahead.
There were three more lead changes over the next three-plus minutes, but Fort Cherry put the hammer down after that.
“We were just playing terrible defense,” Norman said. “We were slow to everything. We were trying to jump passing lanes instead of beating our man to his spot. So we switched our defenses, and we just played harder and played more aggressive.”
Starting with more than five minutes left, Fort Cherry scored the next 12 points, and West Middlesex didn’t score again until the final minute, when it was too late.
The Rangers polished off the win in fitting fashion.
With 36 seconds left, Truschel – who also played quarterback at Fort Cherry – hit Dylan Rogers – Fort Cherry’s standout wide receiver – on a home run pass to put the Rangers up 61-51.
For Truschel, it was perfect.
“To have Dylan be that guy, be on the floor with me, is amazing,” Truschel said. “I know I can throw it up to him. He’ll catch the ball, whatever I throw to him. Aggressive catches, pass catches, he’ll do whatever. I knew it from the start when he stepped up and faked him out and went deep. I was like ‘Yep, Dylan’s catching it.’ It was awesome to have that moment with him.”
Rogers was Fort Cherry’s third player in double figures, ending the night with 13 points.
For West Middlesex, Preston led the way with 24, and Blaze Knight and Tanner Shick each pitched in with 12.
Briggs has been coaching with a heavy heart over the past week. His younger brother, Eric, who graduated from Fort Cherry in 1980, passed away at 59 last Wednesday.
“He was the opposite of his big brother,” Briggs said. “Quiet. Just worked hard – a good friend to everybody.”
The Rangers will play Saturday against Portage, the champion of District 6.
This season has been a dream for Fort Cherry, but, in the words of Eddy Grant, there’s still “lots of work to be done.”
“We’re not in there with champagne,” Briggs said. “They got the W, and (now they’re getting) ready for Saturday.”