West Charlotte starts slow, beats rival Harding in coach Greiner’s return
West Charlotte High gave second-year football coach Sam Greiner exactly what he wanted Friday night.
The Lions went to Harding, Greiner’s old school, and pulled off several big plays in a 20-8 win.
It was the first time that Greiner had been back to his old field since the 2017 state semifinals against Chambers High, the same year Harding won its first state championship since 1953. Before the game, Greiner said he desperately wanted to beat his old team.
Friday, West Charlotte (1-0) had a 65-yard touchdown pass on its first offensive play called back, but still had plenty of big plays remaining.
First, though, the Lions defense came up with a big stop. After a second quarter turnover, Harding (1-1) drove to the Lions 1, looking to take an early lead. But West Charlotte got a big defensive stop.
After that fourth down play, the Lions drove 96 yards, covering the final 40 on a pretty touchdown pass from QB Joshua Mahatha to junior Khemaan Flemming with 1:59 left in the first half.
Then to start the second half, West Charlotte got a long kickoff return from Endai McDowell for a score, and the Lions later added a rushing touchdown, running out to a 20-0 lead.
After a long timeout when a West Charlotte player had to be taken off the field on a stretcher, Harding got a long scoring pass from Diego Parks to Octavion Davis with 7:42 to play. The two-point conversion trimmed the lead to 20-8. Harding got no closer.
West Charlotte beat Harding for the third straight time. The teams didn’t play in the spring season, which was shortened, but West Charlotte won 30-23 in 2019 and 27-10 in 2018.
Harding’s last win in the series was 21-0 in 2017, the year Greiner led the Rams to a state championship.
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 10:02 PM.
