The Fort Cherry Rangers fell short in their first-ever PIAA State Championship appearance, outmatched by the Steelton-Highspire Steamrollers in a lopsided 42-8 contest.
The Steamrollers pitched a shutout for more than 46 minutes, overwhelming the Rangers with their speed on both sides of the ball.
Fort Cherry head coach Tanner Garry said afterwards that he knew heading into the game that beating a team with two state championships in the past three years—now three in four years—would be a monumental task. Even with a talented team, one doesn’t back into a state championship.
“I knew that some things had to go our way in the early going,” Garry said. “We felt like if we were able to hang in the game, we could eventually get to a point where we were going to be able to start churning out some yards.”
Instead, the opposite happened. The Rangers allowed two fourth-down conversions in the first quarter on eventual Steamrollers’ touchdown drives. A pair of first-half interceptions thrown by star sophomore quarterback Matt Sieg dug the hole even deeper as Steelton-Highspire built a 34-0 lead.
Steelton-Highspire Takes Over
Garry didn’t mince words about his team’s performance, describing how self-inflicted errors made it even harder to reach an already high bar.
“We made mistakes that we have not made all year. Bad snaps, offsides, things that just compile sometimes,” Garry said. “They’re [Steelton-Highspire] here for a reason. I just wish that we could’ve shown a little bit more as to why we were.”
Garry continued to describe how the Steamrollers prevented the Rangers from playing the game the way they wanted to. Instead of controlling the clock and wearing down their opponent, the Rangers had to try to roll with the punches Steelton-Highspire threw at them.
“I just think we never had a chance to really get our game going… then we have to start doing things we don’t want to do, which is throwing the ball every down. It’s tough,” Garry said. “Part of that is just things snowballing… whenever you’re [facing] a team with a caliber that this team is, whenever you make mistakes like that, they’re going to take advantage.”
Garry cited the Rangers’ youth at the boundary as a key difference between the teams. The Steamrollers used their sideline-to-sideline speed throughout the game, avoiding Fort Cherry’s veteran defensive line and forcing younger players to make plays.
“All year we have been pretty stout in stopping the run… all of our linemen, big boys, the seniors that are on the team, so that experience goes a long way,” Garry said. “We have a very young secondary group… those kids still played well, they fought, they battled, but if there is a young part of our team it’s some of our skill players.”
Keeping the Rangers Honest
Garry praised the Steamrollers’ offense for their balanced approach, which forced his defense to play honest. They couldn’t sell out to stop the pass or the run with the threat of both looming, making it difficult to adapt adequately—especially when facing a bigger and faster team.
“If you move your corners up to stop that screen that they’re throwing out to the outside… we don’t run quite as well as some of those guys on the outside did,” Garry said. “Now you’re running the risk of giving up a bomb over the top.”
To make matters worse for Fort Cherry, the Steamrollers managed to blur the lines between passing and running, using plays like jet sweeps off shovel passes to turn the corner upfield. Garry described the challenge that Steelton-Highspire posed for his defense. Fort Cherry prepared for the Steamrollers’ style of play, but it wasn’t enough for them to contain it.
“It demands you to be where you’re supposed to be at all times, and if you’re not, they’re going to take advantage of it. The motions that they use and the shifts that they use are all things to try to get people in space and open up possibilities, and they do a great job,” Garry said. “Our kids prepped. It’s hard to play a team like this on a short week. It’s a lot of time that you would normally be spending preparing for a team like that. They’re good at what they do.”
