Rangers roll, set up postseason rematch
McDONALD – Everything was going just fine for Fort Cherry last year until the postseason.
Fort Cherry entered 2025 as two-time defending WPIAL champs and entered the playoffs a perfect 10-0, earning the top seed in Class A.
Operation 3-peat was going great, with FC winning its first two playoff games. Then, the Rangers fell to Laurel in the semifinals, ending that dream.
This season, things are different.
Matt Sieg, arguably the greatest player in Fort Cherry history, is now starting at West Virginia.
Fort Cherry lost its first regular-season game since 2022 to Monessen in September and thus ended up with the No. 4 seed.
But what hasn’t changed is that Fort Cherry is still a force, and showed that by pounding No. 13 Avella 50-6, Friday night at Jim Garry Stadium in a first-round playoff game, setting up a rematch with Laurel, this time in the quarterfinals.
Colin Sieg, Fort Cherry’s freshman starting QB and Matt’s younger brother, only had to attempt five passes all night.
That can happen when you have running backs like seniors Eli Salvini and Ryan Huey.
Salvini gained 178 on eight carries with two touchdowns, and Huey added 75 yards on 7 carries and two TDs.
It was the last home game for those two and the rest of Fort Cherry’s seniors.
Fort Cherry scored first on its initial possession with a 73-yard scoring drive that took 3:30. FC decided to go for it on 4th and 3 from the Avella 7, and it worked, with Ryan Huey running for a 7-yard TD.
On FC’s next drive, it drove 90 yards in 1:15, capping it on Huey’s second TD run of the night, this one from three yards. FC continued to pour it on early in the second quarter on a 2-yard run by Sieg, which effectively put the game to bed.
FC’s Ethan Weinbrenner recovered a fumble on the next possession, and one play later, Eli Salvini ran for a 30-yard score.
It took FC just two plays to score on the next possession, with Landon Trnavsky rushing in for a 2-yard score that would have put the mercy rule into effect had it been the second half.
Salvini made sure that wouldn’t be an issue with a 74-yard run later in the quarter.
With 13 seconds left in the half, fullback Tyler Wolfe, on what will be his last home game at Fort Cherry, scored a two-yard touchdown.
Avella avoided the shutout in the second half as Chad Rush scored on a one-yard plunge.
Fort Cherry scored on each of its seven first-half possessions.