Nov 7, 2025 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

BEAVER – Fort Cherry’s high-powered offense is well-documented and it was on full display again Friday night.

But its defense is pretty good too.

And when the Rangers were a bit disjointed on offense in the second quarter, the defense stood tall.

The top-seeded Rangers held No. 9 Neshannock to two yards of offense in the first half and had a late goal-line stand that forced a field goal in a 36-9 victory in the WPIAL Class A quarterfinals at Beaver’s Gypsy Glen Stadium.

“We just had a great game plan on defense,” Fort Cherry senior Matt Sieg said. “The coaches put in a great plan and we were able to execute. Gavin Grace had a lot of great plays on defense and our defensive backs did a good job in general. I didn’t know they only had two years at halftime though, that’s pretty crazy.”

The Rangers (12-0) advance to the WPIAL semifinals for a third straight season and will play Laurel next Friday. Neshannock finishes 8-4.

Fort Cherry held a 17-0 lead late in the second quarter, but had a near disaster just before the break.

Josh Silveria threw a pass that was picked off by Neshannock’s Anthony Eakin and returned to the end zone, but a block in the back negated a touchdown.

Neshannock had the ball at the 8-yard line with less than 30 seconds to play, but was stuffed trying to get into the end zone.

The Lancers settled for a 21-yard field goal by Amari Rapchak and went into halftime trailing 17-3.

They finished the half with more points than yards.

“It’s one of those things where you know you’re playing well (on defense), but you don’t know how well,” Rangers coach Tanner Garry said. “We challenged them this week. We knew they had a couple of weapons they like to use and our kids did a good job stopping them.”

Fort Cherry put the game away with two touchdowns in the third quarter

The Rangers forced another three-and-out to start the quarter and put Neshannock into the negatives for yardage.

After the punt, Eli Salvini scored on a 69-yard run and it was 24-3.

“We drew that play up at halftime,” Salvini said. “Coach just told me to take it and score and that’s what I did. I couldn’t do it without the (offensive) line though.”

Trailing by 21, Neshannock was forced to go for it on its next drive and Matt Sieg intercepted a Jino Mozzocio pass at the Neshannock 40.

Sieg later converted the short field into points with a two-yard run with 3:33 remaining in the third quarter.

Fort Cherry feasted on excellent field position, with all three of their drives in the first quarter starting in Neshannock territory.

The night started with an opening kickoff return by Fort Cherry’s Joey Barna to the end zone, but it was called back on a block in the back.

Fort Cherry still had good field position at the Neshannock 40 and scored in nine plays on a 1-yard run by Sieg.

Neshannock went three-and-out on its first possession and punted to its own 48. The Rangers moved the ball down inside the Neshannock 10, but a bad snap led to a huge loss on second and goal. Fort Cherry settled for a Nik Massey 37-yard field goal to make it 10-0.

Neshannock again went three-and-out on its next drive and a shanked punt gave the Rangers the ball at the 25.

Fort Cherry scored four plays later on a Christian Yanosko three-yard run and it was 17-0 at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter was much more disjointed for Fort Cherry on offense.

There was a turnover on downs inside the 20 yard line on a reverse-pass that was sniffed out by the Neshannock defense to go along with an interception and four penalties, a false start, delay of game, an illegal shift and a substitution infraction.

But anytime the Lancers had possession it was not for long. They did not achieve a first down in the first half, outside of one given to them on a roughing the passer penalty and Mozzocio did not complete a pass in the first half. He had to run for his life on most plays and was sacked once by Evan Rogers.

Neshannock broke through late in the third quarter when Mozzocio found Justin Edworthy for a 25-yard touchdown that made it 30-9.

Fort Cherry responded with a nine-minute drive in the fourth quarter that Salvini finished with a 35-yard touchdown to close the scoring.