Good times still rolling at Fort Cherry
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Notice: Undefined variable: article_ad_placement3 in /usr/web/cs-washington.ogdennews.com/wp-content/themes/News_Core_2023_WashCluster/single.php on line 128
The good times started to roll at Fort Cherry High School during the fall sports season and they haven’t reached an end.
Fort Cherry won the WPIAL Class A football championship and advanced to the state title game for the first time during the fall. This winter, Fort Cherry is the only Washington County school to advance both its boys and girls basketball teams to the PIAA playoffs.
“Everyone is expecting to win,” Fort Cherry boys basketball coach Eugene Briggs said. “We have hard-working kids who listen to coaching. We have a good, solid group of kids going through the senior high right now.
“What I tell the kids is don’t take this for granted. What you’ve done is unique.”
What the Fort Cherry boys have done this season is part of an impressive run of three consecutive 20-win seasons and three section championships.
“We’re one of only five boys programs in the WPIAL that have done that,” Briggs is quick to point out. “The others are Monessen, Washington, Imani Christian and Greensburg Central Catholic.”
Both the Fort Cherry boys and girls would like to add a PIAA playoff victory to their list of accomplishments. The state tournament begins Friday, when the Fort Cherry girls (19-7) play at District 10 champion Kennedy Catholic (20-4) in a Class 2A first-round contest. Tipoff is 7 p.m.
The Fort Cherry boys (20-6) play Saturday, 1 p.m., at Karns City (20-7), the District 9 runner-up.
Seven teams from the O-R’s coverage area have made the PIAA playoffs. On Friday, the Peters Township girls (23-2) will make a four-hour trip to play at Lebanon (22-3), the District 3 third-place finisher, in a quality first-round matchup in Class 6A. The Monessen girls (19-6) and Monessen boys (20-5), both fifth-place finishers in Class A, will play in a doubleheader at Elk County Catholic, which swept the District 9 boys and girls titles.
On Saturday, WPIAL champion South Fayette (18-8) will host Red Bank (12-14), the eight-place team from District 3, in a Class 5A girls game. The Trinity girls (20-6), the fifth-place finisher in the WPIAL, will play District 10 champion Erie Cathedral Prep (19-3) at the Hagerty Events Center in Erie. Tipoff is 6 p.m.
It used to be that getting information on state playoff opponents was a time-consuming and difficult process. These days, however, video of every team in the state is available online, which makes game planning much easier.
“What you’re looking for on the video is what defense your opponent is playing. Do they have a press they turn to when they get behind? You want to see who wants the basketball – is it one guy controlling the action. The problem with that one is you have to see more than one game to see a pattern develop.
“You also have to use your network of contacts to try to find people who are familiar with the opponent so that you can get some ideas. But what it comes down to is, you have to execute your stuff.”
At Fort Cherry, the guy the Rangers want with the basketball in the hands of senior point guard Derek Errett. Though Fort Cherry can score in bunches and all five starters are capable of scoring 20-plus points on a given night, Errett is the hub of the Rangers’ attack. He averaged a team-best 18.9 points per game during the regular season and is the school’s all-time leader in assists. He also averages five rebounds and five steals per game.
Junior Shane Cornali is the Rangers’ second-leading scorer at 16.3 points per game.
Karns City doesn’t have one big scorer. The Gremlins prefer to spread around the point production and the basketball.
“They are a very balanced team,” Briggs said. “They have five guys averaging from 10 to 14 points.”
Karns City does have a 1,000-point scorer in Taite Beghley, and Luke Cramer scored 21 points in the district semifinals. The Gremlins led Redbank Valley 49-44 early in the fourth quarter before giving up a 19-3 run. In the semifinals, against Otto-Eldred, Karns City trailed by 10 points in the fourth quarter before rallying to win on a buzzer-beater off an inbounds play.
Briggs said playing on Karns City’s home court should not bother the Rangers.
“We’ve played a lot of basketball in a lot of different gyms. It don’t think it will be an issue,” he said, pointing out that the Rangers beat Northgate 71-62 on the Flames’ home court in the WPIAL’s third-place game.