Nov 10, 2016 4 min read

The Fort Cherry High School football team was playing with speed last weekend in the opening round of the WPIAL playoffs. The Rangers’ ability to handle it has put them on the fast track to a game against the team in the pole position in the Class A race.

Fort Cherry was able to handle Sto-Rox’s quickness last Friday night. When the Rangers’ Nick Rogers dashed 75 yards to the end zone with a shanked Sto-Rox field goal, Fort Cherry had a 21-0 lead in the first half. The Rangers went on to an impressive 28-14 victory.

“That was a test for us. We hadn’t played against anyone that was super fast,” Fort Cherry coach Jim Shiel said. “I think we did well. We’re better suited for playing faster teams.”

Fort Cherry (9-1) will play top-seeded Clairton (10-0) in the quarterfinals tonight at Peters Township High School.

The Rangers will again be playing with speed, but as Shiel says, there’s Sto-Rox speed and then there’s Clairton speed. It’s like going from the short track to the superspeedway, and Shiel hopes the Rangers will be able to make the race exciting.

“Team speed is what makes Clairton so good,” Shiel said. “They have great team speed across the board. This will be a challenge for us. We have good team speed and have been a big-play offense, but we’ve been faster than everybody we played.”

Clairton advanced with a 50-6 win over Avella, the fifth-place team from the Tri-County South Conference. Fort Cherry was the runner-up in the Tri-County South and the conference’s only winner in the first round.

Clairton played against Avella without standout senior running back Lamont Wade, who is considered the top recruit in the WPIAL this year, as a defensive back. Wade had surgery last week to repair the meniscus in his right knee – similar to the procedure Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had this season – and is not expected to play against Fort Cherry.

In Wade’s absence, quarterback Noah Hamlin passed for 193 yards and three touchdowns against Avella. He also ran for a score.

Clairton has a big-play offense and dangerous special teams. The Bears average 12.5 yards per rushing attempt and have four players averaging more than 10 yards per carry. Wade, however, is the Bears’ leading rusher with 1,486 yards.

Clairton averages 52.6 points per game.

“Their backs run hard, they can throw, they run a fast-paced offense,” Shiel said, “so we have to be on our toes all the time. They’re a well-oiled machine.”

Hamlin has passed for 891 yards and 10 scores, but he’s also thrown nine interceptions. He will be facing a Fort Cherry secondary that Shiel says is the strength of the Rangers’ defense. Scott Miller is a four-year starter at safety and Rogers is a three-year starter at cornerback. Ryhan Culberson is in his first season with Fort Cherry after transferring from South Fayette and has been a shutdown cornerback.

“Other than a few quick bubble screens, Sto-Rox wasn’t completing any passes against us,” Shiel pointed out.

Fort Cherry’s defense has played well all season. The unit has not yielded more than 14 points to an opponent since the second game of the season against Greensburg Central Catholic. Carmichaels, the only team to beat the Rangers, scored 16 points in the rain and mud but two of those points came on a safety against the FC offense.

“I think we have the two best defensive ends in Class A in Logan Higham and Devon Brown,” Shiel said. “They’re both big, 6-3 and 6-6, 240 or 250 pounds.”

Zach Vincenti, a sophomore linebacker, is the Rangers’ leading tackler with 87 stops, only a few more than Higham. Shiel cited defensive tackle Josh Kumer for having a good game against Sto-Rox.

Culberson has led FC’s quick-striking offense from his quarterback position. He ran for touchdowns of 12 and 68 yards against Sto-Rox and threw a six-yard TD pass to Rogers.

“We’re going to have to control the football and have some time-consuming drives,” Shiel said. “Unfortunately, we’re not a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offense that pounds at a defense. That’s not our M.O. We’ll have to possess the ball and be able to run it between the tackles.”