High School Football: West Charlotte rallies three times, gets past Monroe, 43-29
You can’t win a state championship in August, but you can make the job a bit easier.
West Charlotte came from behind three times Friday night and came away with a 43-29 nonconference victory over Monroe, in a meeting of teams that could go a long way in the postseason.
This 3¼-hour marathon had a little of everything, including back-to-back kickoff returns for touchdowns in the second quarter.
And it was a special night for West Charlotte fans, who got to see a varsity football game on their campus for the first time in three years. West Charlotte’s Mo Collins Field has been under renovation for several seasons, and the Lions were forced to play home games at other schools’ fields.
“It was great to be home finally,” Lions’ head coach Sam Greiner said.
Monroe (1-1), considered a strong 2A state title contender, jumped to a 9-0 lead in the opening four minutes and led 29-21 after three quarters.
But West Charlotte (2-0), a 3A state power, scored the game’s final 22 points, with sophomore K.D. Smith having a role in two of the final three touchdowns. Smith passed to Donte Nicholson for a score, then returned an interception 52 yards to set up the final score, which he got on a 3-yard run.
Greiner honored Smith as the team’s player of the game afterward.
Greiner said he was proud of the way his team rallied. Even bigger, he said, was the value that Friday’s victory could have in the postseason.
“That’s a great team over there,” he said, pointing to Monroe. “They very easily could win the rest of their games.”
Greiner noted that playoff seeding is based partly on an RPI rating system, in which teams earn points every time a team they beat wins a game. Monroe, he said, could earn the Lions a lot of RPI points.
“That’s what makes a game like this so important,” he said.
Greiner said the visiting Redhawks came out strong and put West Charlotte in a hole.
“We challenged our guys to battle back, and they did,” he said.
The heat and humidity took a toll on both teams, but Monroe had more of its players going both ways.
“I think that wore them down towards the end,” Greiner said of the Redhawks.
Scoring Summary
Monroe 9 13 7 0 – 29
West Charlotte 0 21 0 22 – 43
M – Zion Lindsey 18 run (Zach Perialas kick)
M – Safety; West Charlotte’s Jaden Smith tackled in end zone
WC – Jaden Smith 9 return of fumbled punt (Deng Chengkuach kick)
WC – K.D. Smith 3 run (Chengkuach kick)
M – Zachariah Melton 95 kickoff return (Perialas kick)
WC – Davion Jones 76 kickoff return (Chengkuach kick)
M – Lindsey 5 run (kick blocked)
M – Nymir Kendall 3 run (Perialas kick)
WC – Jae’vian Carr 10 run (Chengkuach kick)
WC – Smith 3 run (Chengkuach kick)
PHOTOS: Monroe at West Charlotte
