West Charlotte stops Myers Park, moves to regional final next week
West Charlotte, the reigning N.C. 3A state champion, is one game away from going back to the finals.
The Lions dominated time of possession and wore down Myers Park before taking a 34-21 home victory Friday night in the Western 8A semifinals.
West Charlotte (10-2) advances to play at Hough in next week’s regional championship game; Top-seeded Hough beat West Forsyth 28-10 in its Friday semifinal.
Myers Park ends its season at 9-3, but the Mustangs made a deep playoff run after finishing 4-6 last season.
On Friday, West Charlotte jumped out to a 14-0 lead before a 43-yard TD pass from Myers Park’s Ramir Watson to Chaz Portis cut the lead to one score before halftime.
But in the third quarter, West Charlotte got a quick drive and a 5-yard run from QB Jamouri Nichols to push the lead to 21-7.
West Charlotte eventually led 34-7 before the Mustangs got a 20-yard TD interception return with 7:53 to play and a 1-yard TD run with two seconds left after a bad snap on a West Charlotte punt attempt.
“It was old school smash-mouth football,” said West Charlotte coach Sam Greiner, whose team ran 66 offensive plays to 44 for Myers Park, including 53 of the first 75 offensive snaps of the game. “It wasn’t that cold of a night, but we played that kind of game. Other than that one explosive play we gave up, the defense played lights out.”
“We thought we were the more physical team. We just sort of were wearing on them and proved that.”
Three who made a difference
Donta Nicholson, West Charlotte: Limited to four catches for 20 yards receiving by Myers Park’s defense, the senior wide receiver was an effective punter for the Lions by booting five punts for a 38.0 yard average including four that pinned the Mustangs inside the 20 and two inside their own 7.
West Charlotte running game: Jaciere Gray (eight carries, 92 yards, one TD), Jamil Watson (18 carries, 52 yards, two TDs) and Jamari Nichols (13 points, 50 yards, one TD) ran against a Myers Park defensive line led by top NCAA Division-I recruits Rodney Dunham (Notre Dame commitment) and Damaad Lewis (Florida State, Nebraska, N.C. State and Texas are his finalists) for 207 yards in 50 attempts; West Charlotte coach Sam Greiner credited senior right tackle Jorquis Broome for leading the group.
Josh Falzarano, Myers Park: Senior running back picked up 87 yards on 19 carries and one TD to finish his season with 1,363 yards and 18 TDs rushing.
Notable
— West Charlotte finished with 66 offensive plays for 285 yards, a total that dipped below 300 yards when a high snap on a punt in the closing seconds went for minus-31 yards.
— Both teams gave the game referees a workout as West Charlotte was penalized 17 times for 121 yards and Myers Park 11 times for 96 yards.
— This was the first postseason game between the two schools. West Charlotte leads the all-time series 23-7. The teams last played in 2006 and played annually from 1975 to 1988 and again from 1993 to 2006. Their first meeting came in the first season of fully-integrated Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Schools in 1966 and was West Charlotte’s first game against a formerly all-white school at Charlotte’s Memorial Stadium. (Myers Park won 9-6.)
They said it
“We anticipated that. We look forward to playing them. It’s what everybody wanted, so we’re going to look at the film and get after them next week.” - West Charlotte coach Sam Greiner on his team’s matchup with Hough next week for the Western 8A title.
SCORING SUMMARY
Myers Park 0 7 0 14 — 21
West Charlotte 0 14 14 6 — 34
Second Quarter
WC: Jamouri Nichols 1 run (Angel Ruiz kick)
WC: Jaciere Gray 12 run (Ruiz kick)
MP: Chaz Portis 43 pass from Ramir Watson (James Remsen kick)
Third Quarter
WC: Nichols 5 run (Ruiz kick)
WC: Jamil Watson 3 run (Ruiz kick)
Fourth Quarter
WC: Watson 3 run (kick failed)
MP: Justin Westbrook 20 interception return (Remsen kick)
MP: Josh Falzarano 1 run (Remsen kick)
This story was originally published November 21, 2025 at 9:44 PM.