When discussing a player like Matt Sieg and the legacy Fort Cherry’s senior quarterback will leave behind, it’s hard to avoid going overboard with the superlatives.
Clutch. Spectacular. Remarkable. Unstoppable. These are just a few of the adjectives thrown around to describe Sieg’s greatness on a daily basis — but one major question still remains unanswered.
What could he possibly have in store for his grand finale with the Rangers this fall?
“He’s a special type of player who can impact the game on both sides of the ball,” said Fort Cherry coach Tanner Garry. “There are really no words you can say to express what he’s done for the program. To be able to go from a school that had never won a WPIAL championship, to being able to say we won two back-to-back, with him being obviously a very large part of that — we’re just really excited for his senior year.”
With more than 10,000 total yards and 160 total touchdowns in his first three seasons of high school football, Sieg has already elevated himself into rarified air as one of the most accomplished and decorated players in WPIAL history. After bursting onto the scene as a heralded freshman with blinding speed and an undeniable will to win, the Penn State recruit has evolved year after year into much more than just a run-first quarterback, proving capable of taking over a game at any time with both his arm and his legs.
“This is pretty much what I expected out of him, because I knew how special of a player he could be. But going into his senior year, he has far exceeded anything I could have envisioned for him,” Garry said. “It couldn’t have happened to a better kid. People like to think that he is a kid who has a whole lot of natural talent, but he is also the hardest worker in the room anywhere he goes. He definitely has earned it from day one.”
As a freshman signal caller in 2022, Sieg led Fort Cherry to an eight-win season and a WPIAL quarterfinal appearance, with his signature performance coming in the regular-season finale against Burgettstown. In that 48-34 victory, Sieg ran for a whopping 363 yards and six TDs while adding 38 yards and an additional score through the air. He finished his debut season with 1,221 yards passing and 11 TDs to six interceptions while rushing for 1,982 yards and 33 TDs.
As a sophomore, Sieg took things to a whole new level, passing for 1,670 yards and 20 TDs to just five interceptions. He led the WPIAL with 2,387 yards rushing and 39 scores on the ground, also adding three interceptions and one pick-six on defense along with a pair of punt-return TDs.
His heroics took the Rangers where they had never gone before — all the way to the PIAA Class 1A championship game after capturing their first WPIAL title in school history. Fort Cherry finished the 2023 season with a record of 15-1, with its lone defeat coming in the state final against a Steelton-Highspire dynasty led by its own record-setting quarterback, Alex Erby.
“The championships are the main thing for us,” Sieg said. “The individual stuff for me, it’s really cool, but that can’t happen without the team. The team goals are what we strive for. We go into every season with that as the main goal.
“For me, the ultimate goal is definitely the state title. But to get to that, you need the WPIAL title first. So that’s pretty much the focus for most of the year.”
For an encore performance last fall, Sieg picked up right where he left off, accounting for 3,180 total yards (1,340 passing, 1,840 rushing) and 53 total TDs (20 passing, 32 rushing, 1 punt return). He helped the Rangers complete another undefeated regular season, then authored perhaps his most memorable performance in a heart-pounding 21-20 comeback win against Clairton’s vaunted defense in the WPIAL Class 1A championship game. Sieg completed a go-ahead 13-yard TD pass to Ryan Huey on fourth down with 2:34 remaining that proved to be the game-winning score in an epic clash of two unbeaten teams.
A week later, though, Fort Cherry fell to Port Allegany in the PIAA semifinals by a lopsided score of 46-8, ending the Rangers’ season with an overall record of 14-1 — one win shy of a return trip to the state championship game.
“Growing up in this area, there is definitely a very big milestone when it comes to winning the WPIAL championship,” Garry said. “Going into those PIAA playoffs, it’s easy to sometimes let yourself dip a little bit. I think we definitely fell into that category last year. Don’t get me wrong, we played a fantastic team, but I don’t think the score represented how much better of a team they were.
“That one definitely left a sour taste with us all offseason.”
Erby finished his career at Steelton-Highspire as Pennsylvania’s all-time leader with 13,562 yards passing and 176 passing TDs — not to mention three state titles in four years — but his records only stood for one year before Bishop McDevitt’s Stone Saunders broke them last season. Saunders now stands as Pennsylvania’s career record holder for passing yards (13,719) and passing TDs (204).
Another record Sieg is chasing is the WPIAL record for career touchdowns scored, not including passing TDs. That is held by former Clairton star Lamont Wade, who graduated in 2017 with 121 career TDs. Sieg is only 12 TDs away from tying Wade and 13 scores away from setting a new WPIAL record.
“He’s a good talent. The kid can play,” said Clairton coach Wayne Wade. “Records are meant to be broken. When Tyler [Boyd] was doing it, we were like, ‘Wow, that’s a lot. We probably won’t see that again.’ Then Lamont [Wade] came along and broke it. And this kid is a great football player, so if he breaks it, then more power to him.”
As a pure passer, Sieg might not compare to Erby and Saunders, who now play their college ball at Navy and Kentucky, respectively. But when all is said and done, there is a good chance Sieg finds himself standing atop the state leaderboard for career total yardage and total TDs, as long as he can stay healthy and carry Fort Cherry deep into the WPIAL and state playoffs one last time.
That is a mighty big “if,” but one would be wise to think twice before betting against Sieg.
“He has his mind on high school,” Garry said. “Obviously, it’s easy to look ahead and get excited for that next step with where he’s going, but he wants to be playing with his friends and representing his town for his last year of high school football. He’s definitely eager to get going.”
For his career, the two-time PUP All-Star is now up to 4,231 yards passing and 6,211 yards rushing, giving him 10,442 total yards going into his senior season. Sieg is already the only player in WPIAL history with more than 3,000 yards passing and more than 5,000 yards rushing, and there are only two members of the prestigious 4,000/4,000 club — Sieg and Jeannette legend Terrelle Pryor, widely considered one of the greatest high school football players of all time.
Pryor left a legacy that will likely never be topped as the WPIAL’s greatest dual-threat quarterback, but if there is anybody with a chance to work their way into the conversation, it’s Sieg. It would require a senior season for the ages, one that would surely have to include a WPIAL championship three-peat along with the first state title in school history for Fort Cherry — plus the requisite jaw-dropping numbers in order to break Saunders’ career records for total yardage and total TDs.
And believe it or not, there are still two school records Sieg has yet to break — his head coach’s career passing record of 4,502 yards, and WPIAL Hall of Famer Mike Vernillo’s career rushing record of 7,646 yards, which stood as the WPIAL’s all-time record for more than a decade until Hopewell’s Rushel Shell broke it in 2011.
“It’s pretty cool, being from a school that has had a lot of great athletes in the past,” Sieg said. “It’s pretty special. Growing up here, obviously [Vernillo] has been the talk of Fort Cherry football for a lot of years. I’ve been able to watch a lot of highlights from back when he played, and it’s impressive.
“To be close to those numbers and being able to chase that, it’s something I always wanted to do.”
Breaking those marks will be easier said than done, of course — especially after the graduation of his top receiver and closest friend, Shane Cornali. But with a trio of talented backs returning alongside Sieg in Huey, Eli Salvini and Christian Yanosko, these Rangers appear to have all the makings of a championship-caliber club once again.
As for how far they can go and how many records Sieg can break, only time will tell.
“I’m just looking forward to playing one more year with my best friends that I’ve been playing with my whole life,” Sieg said. “I’m going to try to take in every little moment that I can, because before you know it, it will be over. Somebody will be hoisting that trophy up at the end, and hopefully it’s us.”
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
