O-R Football Player of the Year: Sieg kept Fort Cherry running with WPIAL’s elite

Dec 13, 2024 By Jonathan Guth 3 min read

Matt Sieg joined some elite company this season in surpassing 4,000 career yards in both passing and rushing.

The Fort Cherry junior joined former Jeannette star Terrelle Pryor as the only players in WPIAL to reach the mark. Pryor went on to play at Ohio State and in the NFL.

Sieg hopes to follow Pryor’s path to the NFL, but he will be playing for one of the Buckeyes’ biggest rivals in Penn State. He committed to the Nittany Lions last month.

Sieg also helped lead Fort Cherry to its second straight and WPIAL championship in a 21-20 victory over Clairton in the Class A title game.

The accolades keep coming for Sieg, as he has been named the Observer-Reporter’s Football Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Sieg is the first repeat Player of the Year since South Fayette quarterback Christian Brumbaugh in 2009 and 2010. There have been two three-time Players of the Year: Fort Cherry’s Mike Vernillo (1997-99) and Washington’s Brian Davis (1982-84).

Sieg is proud of the season, but still has one more box to check off on his goal sheet: a state championship.

The Rangers lost their WPIAL Class A semifinal to District 9 champion Port Allegany, 46-8. Fort Cherry lost in the state final during Sieg’s sophomore year.

“It’s an honor to get those awards and milestones, and I’m grateful, but I don’t play for it,” Sieg said. “I would take a state title over it, 100 percent. I want to focus on doing what’s best for our team.”

Sieg put up solid numbers this season in passing for 1,350 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushing for 1,840 yards and scoring 32 TDs. He broke his right thumb the first game of the season and wasn’t able to throw for about a month, but Josh Silveira filled in for Sieg.

“I am blessed to have good teammates,” Sieg said. “We had some injuries going on all year, but it was a next man up mentality.”

In his career, Sieg has passed for 4,242 yards and rushed for 6,212 yards with 129 total touchdowns. Despite his offensive prowess, Sieg is going to play on defense at safety for the Nittany Lions.

He made 50 tackles (23 solo) and had four interceptions this year. Sieg returned a punt for a touchdown and also did the punting for the Rangers.

“I felt like I took a big step in my play on the defensive side of the ball,” Sieg said. “I worked a lot on my conditioning and keeping myself in shape to play both ways a lot more this year. I had the best season of my career on defense.”

Sieg doesn’t want the season ending two wins short of the ultimate goal of a state title to put a damper on what Fort Cherry accomplished this season. He is also happy to have selected his college of choice, so he can focus solely on playing football next year.

“Our goal was to defend the WPIAL title, and we were able to do that against a really good team and defense in Clairton,” Sieg said. “They had a lot of speed and physicality. We were the underdogs going into that game, and we took that as motivation. We won’t let not being able to win a state title define our season.

“I enjoyed the recruitment process, but it was nice to get it off my chest.”