5 Things to Watch: Semifinals are twice as nice for PT, Fort Cherry
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
At the start of this month, we had 11 local high school football teams competing in postseason play. Now, we’re down to just two, and it’s not a surprise as to who they are.
Peters Township in Class 5A, and Fort Cherry in Class A, will be playing this week to run it back. Both won WPIAL championships a year ago and can return to the title game by winning tonight in the semifinals. Third-seeded Peters Township (10-1) plays second-seeded Upper St. Clair (11-0) at Bethel Park High School while top-seeded Fort Cherry (12-0) plays surprising and 13th-seeded Jeannette (9-3) at Canon-McMillan. Both games kick off at 7 p.m.
Here are five things to watch tonight:
1. Here we go again – How often do you get to atone for a bad day at the office? It’s rare, right?
Peters Township can make amends for the one blemish on its record this year and its lone loss to an opponent from the WPIAL in two years. Upper St. Clair defeated Peters Township 21-7 back on Sept. 27. That game was played on the Panthers’ home field and it ultimately led to USC winning the Allegheny Six Conference title.
A talented and motivated team playing to get revenge, along with defending a championship, is perhaps the most dangerous team in sports.
2. Setting the pace – The outcome of the PT-USC game could be decided by which team sets the tempo. PT prefers a high-scoring shootout. The Indians average 34 points per game and have been held to fewer than 31 only twice, one of those times being the loss to USC.
The Panthers prefer a grind-it-out game, something that appears directly out of your father’s high school football era. USC has won three games in which it scored 21 points or less.
USC’s strength is controlling the ball with its running game and using a big and talented offensive line to wear down opponents. In the first meeting with Peters Township, USC running back Julian Dahlem rushed for 185 yards on 22 carries, including a 71-yard jaunt on a third-and-32 play in the fourth quarter.
The key matchup will be the USC offensive line against the Indians’ front seven. Whoever wins the battle at the line of scrimmage will have the upper hand in this game.
3. Mirror images – Fort Cherry and Jeannette seem to have the same blueprint on offense. Both teams are centered around dual-threat quarterbacks, Matt Sieg for the Rangers and Kymon’e Brown for the Jayhawks.
Sieg topped the 1,000-yard mark in passing yards during a win over Cornell last week and now has 1,022 yards and 19 touchdowns. He is the Rangers’ leading rusher with 1,495 yards and 23 scores.
Brown, who led Jeannette to wins over fourth-seeded Neshannock and fifth-seeded Greensburg Central Catholic in the last two weeks, has passed for 1,680 yards and 20 touchdowns, and he’s rushed for 1,239 yards and 15 scores.
Slowing the opponent’s quarterback is a must – that’s where guys like Tyler Wolfe, Blake Sweder and Nate Heirendt, the Rangers top-three tacklers, must come into play. Sweder also has a team-high four interceptions. Generating offense with players other than the quarterback will help, too. Fort Cherry running back Ryan Huey has had a good season with 651 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.
Sieg needs only 87 passing yards for 4,000 in his career. That would make him only the second player in WPIAL history with 4,000 passing and 4,000 rushing yards. The other was Terrelle Pryor, who played at, you guessed it, Jeannette.
4. So many quarterbacks – Jeannette head coach Tommy Paulone was a quarterback at Waynesburg University. His senior year was 2013.
Fort Cherry assistant coach Tim Garry also is a former quarterback at Waynesburg, though many years before Paulone.
There are a lot of former quarterbacks on these coaching staffs. Fort Cherry head coach Tanner Garry was a QB at Youngstown State and Slippery Rock. Perhaps that’s why Fort Cherry and Jeannette are so offensive-minded.
Fort Cherry averages 40.9 points per game and Jeannette is scoring at a 29.7 clip.
5. Defense and special teams – These units can make or break a team in big games.
In the previous PT-USC game, the Panthers’ defense scored in the first half on an interception return by Dahlem, the result of a strong pass rush. It was the only TD of the first half for USC as the Panthers were held to only 43 yards of offense in the first 24 minutes.
PT’s special teams have been, well, special. The Indians have a strong kicking game and punt returner Nick McCullough is a threat to take one back for a score. A big play on special teams could be the difference in this game.
Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com