Sieg steals show, powers Fort Cherry back to title game
By Joe Tuscano
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
CANONSBURG – It was supposed to be a battle of standout quarterbacks.
It turned into the Matt Sieg Show.
The junior quarterback from Fort Cherry High School had six rushing touchdowns as the Rangers drubbed Jeannette 49-14 in the semifinals of the WPIAL Class A semifinals at AHM Stadium in Canonsburg on a drizzly Friday evening.
Fort Cherry (13-0) advances to the Class A finals next Saturday at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.
The Rangers, who will be looking to repeat as WPIAL champions, will play the Clairton Bears at 11 a.m.
Clairton has allowed 21 total points all season.
“It’s one of those things where you made it last year and you want to defend your title,” said Fort Cherry head coach Tanner Garry. “It’s something we’re excited to do.”
Sieg passed for 152 yards and rushed for 210 yards. His six touchdowns bring his season total to 29 rushing.
“Our line did a great job,” said Sieg. “That’s a good team. You don’t advance to the WPIAL semifinals without a lot of talent. To play the way they did shows the result of the hard work. We’re proud of our guys, we’re going to enjoy this win and try to win the title next week.”
Sieg had a great first half, scoring four touchdowns. He passed for an unofficial 103 yards in the first half, which put him in some select company. Sieg, who recently committed to Penn State, became the second player in WPIAL history to amass 4,000 yards rushing and 4,000 yards passing in a career. Terrelle Pryor, who played at Jeannette, was the first player to reach that milestone.
“He’s able to do the things he does because of the people around him,” said Garry. “He’d be the first player to give credit to the people who open the holes he runs through. He’s good at football. He gets better every game, every year.”
Jeannette came into the game having beaten the fourth and fifth seeds in the playoffs. The Jayhawks had never played Fort Cherry in football.
The first half played out like a scary movie. You just didn’t know when the hair-raising part would come.
Sieg scored four first-half touchdowns, all with his speedy legs.
He opened the scoring with an 11-yard run then brought it home from 12 yards out. Next came a 59-yard bomb from Jeannette quarterback Kymore Brown threw a beautiful 59-yard touchdown pass to Jayce Powell to cut Fort Cherry’s lead to 14-7.
Siege busted loose for a 43-yard touchdown run, broke off a 24-yard touchdown run to give the Rangers a 28-7 lead at intermission.
Each team had a touchdown called back because of a penalty.