Freshman helps Fort Cherry deal C-H first loss

McDONALD – Matt Sieg is just a freshman.
Fort Cherry coach Tanner Garry probably smiles whenever he thinks of that.
Chartiers-Houston coach Terry Fetsko probably doesn’t.
Sieg ran for 212 yards and scored four touchdowns on 14 carries in Fort Cherry’s 41-14 win over Chartiers-Houston on Friday night in a Black Hills Conference opener at Jim Garry Stadium.
It might be hard to believe from his statistics, but Sieg is a quarterback.
He also punts and plays safety, doing whatever his coaches ask of him.
His head coach, Tanner Garry – who coaches in a stadium named for his grandfather, a legendary Fort Cherry coach – was a record-setting quarterback for the Rangers at the start of the last decade and still holds the school records for passing yards and touchdowns.
He’s hoping Sieg breaks them.
“Records are meant to be broken,” Garry said.
Garry, who took over the program at his alma mater before the 2020 season, has thought about the possibility since Sieg was in middle school.
“I want him to break it,” Garry said. “I want him to shatter it. I want him to leave as one of the best to ever do it. I think that he’s doing a great job of putting himself in the right position. If I can help him get there, then that’s even better for me.”
Sieg was modest after the game, deflecting credit to his offensive line and running backs, such as Nathan Heirendt and Ethan Faletto.
“Our line came out, opened up some big holes,” Sieg said. “We’ve got big running backs, and we just ran the ball down their throats.”
Fort Cherry (1-0, 3-1) cashed in on each of its first two possessions, both ending on touchdown runs by Sieg.
Sieg’s first touchdown run was from one-yard out, but the most impressive part was the play before.
Sieg ran 33 yards to Chartiers-Houston’s one-yard line, and scoring was easy.
On the next drive, Sieg ran it in again, this time from nine yards.
But Char-Houston had an answer. After turning Fort Cherry over on downs, Jake Mele took the first play on the ensuing drive for a 71-yard touchdown run to get the game back to within a score. The extra point made it 14-7.
Fort Cherry atoned for that on its next possession, capping a scoring drive on an 11-yard run by Ethan Faletto.
The Rangers pushed the lead further in the last minute of the first half.
After getting the ball back on a turnover on downs, Sieg took the first play of the ensuing drive 62 yards for his third touchdown. That run and the extra point gave the Rangers a lead they would take into halftime.
A 9-yard run by Heirendt on Fort Cherry’s first drive of the second half was too much for Chartiers-Houston (0-1, 3-1), which lost for the first time, to overcome.
Fort Cherry has a stiff task next week, heading to Our Lady of the Scared Heart.
For Sieg and Garry, the Rangers need to get back to business.
“We have to get in the film room tomorrow, we’ll recover and we’ll have a good week of practice,” he said. “Coach will put together a good game plan.”
“We had a big win this week,” Garry said, “but we have to continue to the next game. We’ll see tomorrow what mistakes we did make and try to carry over into OLSH.”
Char-Houston will look to get back on the horse against Burgettstown.