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Carmichaels reverses course, wins shootout

4 min read
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CARMICHAELS — A year ago, a senior-ladened Fort Cherry Rangers football team traveled to Carmichaels and escaped with a 27-20 win.

This year is different.

The Mikes of Carmichaels prevailed with a 29-26 victory in a rollercoaster of a game Friday night.

Coming into the night both teams were 1-0. Carmichaels was coming off a 24-0 win over cross-county foe, Waynesburg.

“I felt like we did a good job.” Carmichaels head coach Ron Gallagher said about his team’s performance last week. “We didn’t play perfect defense but against a team that was bigger than us, we had good defensive line and linebacker play.”

The Rangers beat Northgate in their season opener 69-20 behind a big performance from freshman quarterback Matt Sieg.

“Going into that game we had a lot of questions that needed to be answered.” Fort Cherry head coach Tanner Garry said pregame. “It’s hard to replace a senior quarterback like we had last year, but Matt has done a fantastic job and he’s only going to get better.”

The first half of the game was an offensive boxing match. Both teams landed big shots, were able to maintain long drives and scored three times.

Carmichaels sophomore wide receiver Brandon Yekel got the scoring started when he hauled in a 25-yard pass from senior quarterback Alec Anderson. Fort Cherry responded with a 65-yard touchdown drive, capped when Sieg scampered in from 39 yards.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Rangers were penalized for illegal procedure and were forced to re-kick. Senior wide receiver Tyler Richmond took full advantage of the opportunity and returned the kick 82 yards for a Mikes touchdown with less than a minute left in the first quarter.

Fort Cherry junior running back Nick Faletto helped the Rangers answer when he took a handoff and went 16 yards for a touchdown. After receiving the kickoff, Carmichaels drove 70 yards and the drive was capped off by an Anderson 1-yard quarterback sneak.

With less than three minutes remaining in the first half, Sieg led and finished a Fort Cherry drive with a 6-yard rushing touchdown. Carmichaels led 22-20 at the half.

Coming out of halftime Carmichaels leaned heavily on Anderson.

It was the right choice.

The Mikes drove 62 yards on six plays, all but one play had Anderson’s hands on it. This time Anderson sprinted in from 28 yards after breaking multiple tackles.

After taking a 29-20 lead, the Carmichaels celebration was cut short when Shayne Cornali returned the kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown.

Anderson again directed an impressive drive for the Mikes, but this time was intercepted by Cornali at the goal line.

With the score 29-26 in favor of the Mikes. The offenses ran out of gas. A game that seemed to be defense optional was suddenly turned into a defensive war. Both teams stalled or had turnovers on their next three drives.

After leading a solid drive, Sieg fumbled on a fourth and six in Mikes territory. After one first-down conversion by Anderson, the game was sealed.

“I’m proud of the kids,” Gallagher said. “I asked them what they wanted to run, and they called the play there at the end. When they do that I know it’s in their hearts that they’ll make it.”

Anderson rushed 25 times for a total of 134 yards. His counterpart Sieg rushed 16 times for 97 yards.

“He ran the ball a lot tonight,” Gallagher said about Anderson. “I think he got a little fatigued there towards the end, but he was ready when we called his number.”

The Mikes (2-0) will look to improve their perfect record when they travel north to play the Buccaneers of Chartiers-Houston next Friday.

Fort Cherry (1-1, 0-0) will look to rebound next week at home when it faces Beth-Center.

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