Undefeated OLSH tops Fort Cherry in WPIAL final
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry coach Eugene Briggs rallies his Rangers during a timeout in the WPIAL Class 2A Championship game Saturday against Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at the Petersen Events Center. The Rangers host West Middlesex in the first round of the PIAA tournament Wednesday.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry head coach Eugene Briggs meets with his team to savor the moment at center court in the Petersen Events Center as they prepare for the WPIAL 2A Championship game Saturday against Our Lady of Sacred Heart.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry's Owen Norman draws a foul against OLSH's Kevin Wilson in the second half of the WPIAL Class 2A Championship game Saturday at the Petersen Events Center.
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fighting until the end, Fort Cherry’s Maddox Truschel drives through the lane in a late fourth-quarter scoring attempt.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry head coach Eugene Briggs lifts the runner-up trophy his Rangers earned in the WPIAL Class 2A boys basketball tournament. The Rangers host West Middlesex in the first round of the PIAA tournament Wednesday.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry team captain Maddox Truschel receives his runner-up medal and congratulations from Fort Cherry head coach Eugene Briggs after the WPIAL Class 2A Championship game Saturday against OLSH at the Petersen Events Center.
Mark Marietta
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Dylan Rogers splits the OLSH defenders and lays in two points in the second half.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry's Owen Norman drives for a layup against OLSH's Dawson Summer in second half.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry's Maddox Truschel lunges past Our Lady of Sacred Heart's Dawson Summer during the second half.
PITTSBURGH – Fort Cherry’s boys basketball team came into Saturday with a 23-2 record.
Fort Cherry also came into Saturday the heavy underdog.
Part of that is because the Rangers hadn’t been to a WPIAL championship game since 1961, but mostly, it speaks to how good Our Lady of Sacred Heart is at basketball.
The Chargers came into the Peterson Events Center with a WPIAL-record 62 straight wins, and when a program is that dominant, it makes a championship game between the No. 1 vs. No. 2 seeds feel like a first-round matchup.
That isn’t a knock on Fort Cherry – coach Eugene Briggs’ Rangers belonged on this stage. But OLSH is just that good and further proved it with a 60-37 win in the Class 2A title game over Fort Cherry for its fourth straight WPIAL championship. The Chargers are the first boys basketball team in more than four decades to win four consecutive WPIAL titles and only the second overall. Midland won five straight from 1973-77.
Nobody on the outside gave Fort Cherry much of a chance, but Briggs and his team came prepared and challenged the Chargers.
“They expected to win today,” Briggs said. “Honest to God. They did expect to win today. I wouldn’t have been surprised if they did because they’ve found ways all year long.”
Fort Cherry hadn’t seen a team like OLSH this season, and the Chargers have no equal in Class 2A and few, if any, in the entire district.
The Rangers hung around for most of the first half and went into halftime down by a modest 13 points. In the second half, however, OLSH gradually put the game away.
Dylan Rogers, playing on a bad ankle that has bothered him for almost two months and that he reaggravated late in the first half, had team-high 13 points for Fort Cherry. He also picked up seven rebounds.
Briggs feels that, despite a solid stat line, Rogers’s health deterred his play to an extent.
“If that doesn’t happen, he’s taking them to the basket,” Briggs said. “You saw early on he was able to get to the basket. He’s done that all year long.”
Fort Cherry would have had to have been close to perfect to beat OLSH, but Rogers’ health and junior Owen Norman not scoring until the fourth quarter didn’t help things.
For OLSH (23-0), Jake DiMichele, wearing the jersey No. 0 but playing like the furthest thing from one, scored a game-high 29 and added 11 rebounds. Dawson Summers added 15 points for the Chargers.
OLSH coach Mike Rodriguez has known Briggs for a long time, as the two coached against each other frequently when Briggs was the head man at Chartiers-Houston. After the game, Rodriguez called his friend a “class act.”
“The job that he’s done this year, he certainly deserves every accolade he can get because he’s an outstanding coach and an outstanding man,” Rodriguez said.
Fort Cherry’s season isn’t over yet. The Rangers will get to play in the PIAA tournament Wednesday – at home against West Middlesex, the third-place team from District 10 – which is something else that hasn’t happened in more than six decades.
No matter what happens from here, Rangers senior Maddox Truschel understands that perspective is important.
“It’s been a dream of mine to come and play for a WPIAL title,” Truschel, who narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds, said. “(Losing) stinks, but we just have to look at what we did all season long – section champs, shutting all the haters down. Everyone was saying that we weren’t going to even be in the championship game. I’m just proud and honored to be here.”
Neither Truschel nor Rogers planned on playing basketball at all during their senior year. But after the Rangers’ football season ended with a 23-0 loss to Burgettown and missing the playoffs, the two decided to play hoops.
They’ll be getting a much better ending in basketball.
“When I started coming to practice more after football, I started to really feel involved,” Truschel said. “I just fell in love with basketball again. As you can see, it turned out to be a good ride.
“I never really loved basketball until this season, I’d say,” Rogers said. “I’m glad I came out. I wish we could have brought home first, but second’s alright, and the season’s not over.”
Although this magic carpet ride didn’t end in a WPIAL championship, nothing that happened Saturday or that will occur in the state tournament can diminish what’s happened in McDonald this winter.
With another good turnout from the Rangers’ supporters in Oakland, Truschel and his teammates understand what this year has meant.
“I’m at a loss for words for the community of Fort Cherry,” Truschel said. “They’ve been so amazing to us … just… it’s just awesome.”