Fort Cherry keeps it simple, cruises past WG
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry’s Ryhan Culberson uses a stiff arm to get around West Greene’s Isaac Courtwright.
Fort Cherry’s Matthew Staley tackles West Greene’s Zachary Pettit Friday night.
Fort Cherry’s Zachary Vincenti carries the ball Friday night against West Greene.
West Greene’s Zachary Pettit runs for a touchdown Friday night against Fort Cherry.
West Greene’s Zachary Pettit intercepts a pass Friday night intended for Fort Cherry’s Noah Babirad.
McDONALD – There was one of two options Fort Cherry head football coach Jim Shiel could have chosen after finishing 9-2 a season ago.
He could have kept what worked for the Rangers and advanced them into the second round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs and nearly got them a conference title. Or he had to drastically change strategies after a successful 2016 season.
Departing along with eight graduating seniors from last year’s team were wristbands and a variety of signals the Fort Cherry coaching staff used to call in plays from the sidelines.
It was about Shiel wanting to simplify game nights.
That decision was evident Friday night as Shiel put the football in the hands of his best player, senior quarterback Ryhan Culberson, who ran for 260 yards and five touchdowns in Fort Cherry’s 32-6 homecoming victory over West Greene in a Tri-County South Conference game at Jim Garry Stadium.
“He’s special,” Shiel said. “But that being said, we have fixed a lot of things. We are very young and inexperienced on the offensive line but they’ve started to get it. We’ve been getting a little better with each game. (West Greene) put seven guys in the box and we still handled them. That’s something we weren’t able to do in Week One.”
Everything that Fort Cherry needed to do offensively, Culberson was up to the task.
He turned broken plays into big ones.
He broke numerous tackles before even reaching the line of scrimmage.
He also finished many of his five touchdown runs with authority, running over and carrying West Greene defenders into the end zone.
“I came into this game a little fired up because we were being doubted,” Culberson said. “It was talked about during practice. But if it wasn’t for the offensive line tonight I wouldn’t have had the type of game I had.”
After dominating much of the first half yet holding only a 13-6 lead, Fort Cherry (2-1, 4-1) stepped on the gas pedal immediately after halftime when it traveled 53 yards in less than a minute-and-a-half before Culberson plunged into the end zone on a 14-yard touchdown.
The Rangers then forced West Greene to punt before going on a seven-play, 70-yard drive, capped by a three-yard touchdown run by Culberson – who scored all of Fort Cherry’s touchdowns – to give the Rangers a 26-6 lead with 3:35 left in the third quarter.
The most frustrating play of the night for the Pioneers (3-2, 4-2) might have come in the middle of the fourth quarter when a shotgun snap slipped through Culberson’s hands before he coolly picked it up and raced past the West Greene defense to take a commanding 32-6 lead with 8:42 remaining.
“He’s a great player,” said West Greene head coach Rodney Huffman. “We were there to make tackles and just didn’t make them.”
That frustration didn’t start in the second half for West Greene. Culberson broke several arm tackles from West Greene and gained 136 rushing yards in the first half.
The success for the Rangers wasn’t limited to the offensive side of the ball. The defense held West Greene to only six points, its worst single-game total of the season.
The lone score for the Pioneers came when quarterback Zach Pettit answered Culberson’s first score and cut the West Greene deficit to 7-6 with a 56-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter.
“I like to call it the Penn State philosophy of defense,” Shiel joked. “We bend but we don’t break. West Greene had to earn everything it got tonight.”
Sophomore running back Ben Jackson West Greene with 110 yards on 21 carries. Pettit had nine attempts for 60 yards.
“It was tough,” Huffman said. “(Fort Cherry) was loading up the side we were trying to run to. A lot of times, we just didn’t get a block. Sometimes a back made a bad cut. It’s a quick game. You play it in eight-second spurts and sometime it just doesn’t go your way. That’s how it was tonight.”