The Lions are kings again. West Charlotte beats Seventy-First in 3A state championship

Earlier this week, West Charlotte coach Sam Greiner asked his wife, Connie, what she wanted for her birthday on Saturday.

Greiner knew he had been away from home a lot, working hard to lead West Charlotte to its first state championship appearance in 18 years.

“I said, ‘Baby, look, I’ve been so busy but you’ve got to tell me what you want,’” Greiner said. “I said, ‘I’ll go get you anything for you.’ She said, ‘Sam, all I want is a win.’”

And Greiner told his wife: “I ain’t coming home without it.”

So on his wife’s birthday — and one day after his son, Rock, turned 3 — Greiner and West Charlotte beat Fayetteville Seventy-First, 14-7, Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.

Connie Greiner works in retail and had to stay home in Charlotte, but Greiner’s three school-age kids and his extended West Charlotte family saw the Lions win their first state championship since 1995 and they saw Greiner become the first Charlotte-Mecklenburg football coach in 24 years to win state championships at two different schools.

Tom Knotts was West Charlotte coach in 1995 and he led Independence to the 2000 4A state championship, the first of seven straight for the Patriots.

Now Greiner has a title at West Charlotte to match the one he won at Harding in 2017, when he led the Rams to their first state title in more than 50 years.

“We went through a lot of adversity and we usually put up a lot of points,” said West Charlotte sophomore quarterback Jamouri Nichols, named championship MVP. “But today showed us who we really were. We came through at the end.”

West Charlotte (13-2) and Nichols got an early lead after he threw the first of two touchdown passes, finding KD Cotton with 6:42 left in the first quarter.

The Lions had several opportunities to build on that lead, constantly getting the ball on Seventy-First’s side of the 50. But the Falcons’ defense made life hard on West Charlotte, which had blitzed its way through the playoffs, averaging 48 points per game.

West Charlotte’s defense, too, played a great game, using its speed to deal with a much larger Seventy-First team that came into the game featuring three 1,000-yard rushers and averaging nearly 50 points per game.

The Falcons finished with 45 yards rushing.

West Charlotte’s defense, led by senior Noah Collins, was constantly in the Seventy-First backfield. The Falcons’ longest rush, all game, was nine yards.

West Charlotte’s team speed “was definitely a problem that we couldn’t neutralize,” Seventy-First coach Duran McLaurin said. “They are fast on defense and that did cause some problems, but you know, that’s the game.”

McLaurin’s team was still in the game late, thanks to its defense. West Charlotte finished with 116 yards rushing and Nichols’ 94 yards passing, but the difference was a fumble West Charlotte forced in the fourth quarter that gave the Lions the ball at the Falcons’ 27.

A few plays later, Nichols hit Donte Nicholson with a 10-yard game winner.

Seventy-First had one last chance to tie and drove inside the West Charlotte 30.

But the clock ran out, and West Charlotte won its second NCHSAA state championship in its eighth state championship appearance. The 1954 Lions team won the N.C. Negro High School Athletic Association title. That was West Charlotte’s first.

“We came through in the end,” Nichols said. “At first, I started looking around, thinking, ‘Is this real?’ I thought it was a dream, but out of nowhere, everybody started celebrating. I felt it in my spirit and then I started getting happy.”

THREE WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

Jamouri Nichols, West Charlotte: Sophomore QB completed 12 of 13 passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns. He was named championship MVP.

Noah Collins, West Charlotte: Collins was named west defensive MVP for his team. He had a game-high 10 tackles.

Sam Johnson, West Charlotte: Johnson forced the fumble that set up the winning drive for the Lions. He also recovered the fumble.

Notes

▪ Seventy-First’s Nyrus Moore was named his team’s defensive MVP. Moore. He had nine tackles, two sacks and a forced fumble.

▪ Deandre Nance was the Falcons’ offensive MVP. Nance threw for 142 yards.

▪ West Charlotte’s offensive MVP was KD Cotton, who caught the game-winning pass in the state semifinal. Saturday, Cotton had 44 yards rushing and a touchdown reception.

▪ Seventy-First lost to Hickory in the 2023 NCHSAA 3A state final.

▪ West Charlotte has 37 underclassmen and 10 seniors on the roster. Many of the younger players, like Cotton and Nichols, will return.

“We’re going to get better and better,” Greiner said, “and if we continue to grow at the pace we do, it’s going to be special to watch this group.”

GAME SUMMARY

Fayetteville Seventy-First 0 7 0 0 — 7

West Charlotte 7 0 0 7 — 14

FIRST QUARTER

WC: Christian Coleman 7 pass from Jamouri Nichols (Deng Chengkuach kick)

SECOND QUARTER

FS: Jayson Franklin 3 run (Rodolpho Joseph kick)

FOURTH QUARTER

WC: Donte Nicholson 10 pass from Nichols (Chengkuach kick)