Second quarter struggles cost South Side in 42-28 loss to Fort Cherry in WPIAL title game

PITTSBURGH — After a promising start on both sides of the ball, the South Side Rams struggled in the second quarter Friday in the WPIAL Class 1A championship. That brief struggle in the second quarter proved to be the difference as the Fort Cherry defeated the Rams 42-28 to claim its first WPIAL title in school history.

South Side seemed to have its way throughout the first quarter and the early stages of the second as the Rams held an eight-point lead with 9:58 to go in the first half after a start where the Rams fumbled the football on its opening possession.

But the, things unraveled in the second quarter as Fort Cherry quarterback Matt Sieg, who holds Division I offers from Penn State, Pitt and West Virginia, and the Rangers took over.

“The year that we had, today was the most adversity that we faced over the course of the season,” South Side head coach Luke Travelpiece said after his team’s season-ending loss. “We have been in similar situations where the ball goes down on the ground and the opposing team starts to move the ball. But for us to come back and take the lead, our guys continued to fight and persevere and it just showed the passion and belief of one another.

"It obviously did not turn out the way that we would have wanted and Fort Cherry made a number of plays, but I am just so proud of what our team accomplished over the course of the season.”

After the high offensive output for South Side, the Rangers tightened up on both sides of the ball and had their way with the Rams throughout the remainder of the first half.

South Side looked to have Fort Cherry on the ropes after forcing the Rangers to punt and followed a quick five-play 80-yard drive capped off with an AC Corfield 3-yard touchdown, which was all set up by two 30-plus yard rushes by Brody Almashy and Ryan Navarra.

Fort Cherry did not blink as it began to pick apart the South Side defense in the second quarter, though, as the Rangers scored 21 unanswered points to end the first half of play.

Sieg made a number of big plays in the second quarter for the Rangers after they found themselves trailing, throwing for 132 yards and tossing two touchdowns while completing 63% of his passes.

Sieg is known for his big cannon of an arm and he showcased it Friday afternoon as he connected with Shane Cornali for a 35-yard touchdown to knot the game up at 14 points apiece.

Then with just three seconds remaining in the first half, Sieg connected with Cornali again, this time for a 22-yard touchdown, to go up two possessions at the end of the first half of play.

“Their offensive staff [Fort Cherry] did a great job of attacking us but we still fought back and we still were able to move the ball,” Travelpiece said. “On the next possession we had a play that got called back because of a penalty and a couple of things that made it snowball a little bit. With the style that we play, you don’t want to get behind the chains and we talk about that a lot and during that particular series, we got behind the chains and Fort Cherry was able to get a stop and score and we tried to answer back which we did well last week but we got stopped again and Fort Cherry ran a one minute drill.

"Those seven points at the end of the half were a shot in the arm and made it more challenging for us.”

As the defense struggled to stop the aerial attack from Sieg and the Rangers, the South Side offense struggled to keep pace with the Fort Cherry offense throughout the middle stages of the contest.

Corfield and Almashy were the main sources of offense on the ground for the Rams Friday afternoon as the senior quarterback and sophomore running back combined for three of the four scoring plays in the contest while also rushing for over 100 yards respectively.

“At the half, we had about 195 yards rushing in the game and we were able to take advantage of what was given to us,” Travelpiece said. “We talk about our ability to be discipline and to be able to adjust and the running backs and lineman they know what we need to do to make that happen.

"Our offense does a great job at recognizing the scheme and we weren’t surprised to see that success but we gave Fort Cherry too many opportunities and good teams will take advantage of that.”

Even though the senior signal caller excelled on the ground, Almashy struggled to pass the ball as he was just 2-for-10 through the air along with throwing one interception on the afternoon.

In the second quarter of play, Almashy had his best chance connecting with a receiver as Carter Wilson was open in the middle of the field on both third and fourth down but Wilson couldn’t secure the ball and the Rams turned the ball over on downs.

Almashy’s passing woes continued in the third quarter as the senior was trying to make a big play down the field but was intercepted by Sieg to seal the game for the Rangers.

With the loss, it will mark the end of one of South Side’s best seasons in program history as the Rams finish the year with a 13-1 record.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Second quarter struggles cost South Side in 42-28 loss to Fort Cherry in WPIAL title game