West Charlotte, Hough set for high-stakes clash in NCHSAA 8A football semifinal

Put two teams like West Charlotte and Hough on a football field, and you’ll get some “wow” plays, Butler head football coach Brian Hales said.

“The key to the game will be not getting caught up in those ‘wow’ plays,” Hales said earlier this week on The Observer’s “Talking Preps” streaming show.

The schools will meet up Friday night in what figures to be the game of the year for Charlotte-area football fans.

It might be the biggest high school football matchup in Charlotte since nationally ranked Butler and nationally ranked Independence faced off in the N.C. 4A Western Regional championship game in 2009.

Friday’s live scores

Follow Friday’s playoff scores, including West Charlotte-Hough

West Charlotte, 10-2 and the No. 2 seed in the Class 8A West, will travel to Hough, 12-0 and the top seed, in a playoff semifinal or the NCHSAA 8A Western Regional championship game.

West Charlotte is No. 3 in The Observer’s Sweet 16 poll and No. 2 in the Class 8A statewide rankings. Hough is No. 2 in The Sweet 16 and No. 1 in the state.

Providence Day, the NCISAA state champion, is No. 1 in The Sweet 16 and No. 19 in the High School Football America poll. Hough is the next highest-ranked Observer-area team, at No. 51 nationally; West Charlotte is next, at No. 86.

And this game has been discussed all fall: What might happen if these two played?

On the field will be 12 players already committed to play Division I in the senior class, plus another 14 underclassmen who have Division I offers — and a pair of teams used to winning.

West Charlotte won the N.C. 3A state championship last season. Hough hasn’t had a losing season since 2011, and head coach DeShawn Baker, in three years, is 19-0 in conference games.

The winner of the 7 p.m. game advances to the state championship, to be played in two weeks. Hough will try to reach its first one.

A pair of 12-0 teams, Hoggard and Millbrook, will play Friday for the 8A East championship.

West Charlotte quarterback Jamouri Nichols, a semifinalist for the N.C. Mr. Football award, has thrown for 1,928 yards and 20 touchdowns this season. He leads an explosive attack that strikes often with big plays.

The defense features Georgia commit Elijah Littlejohn and Michael Griffin Jr., who is being recruited by numerous Power Four schools.

“The key to the game for us is don’t give them the explosive plays,” Baker said of the Lions.

To help with that, Hough has defensive back Samari Matthews, a Texas commit, and a top 125 player in America.

But Baker said his team “doesn’t have the glitz and glamour. A lot of our players are FCS kids. They just want to play ball.”

West Charlotte head coach Sam Greiner, noting that the Lions have lost 14 in a row to Hough, said, “It’s time to change that.”

“At the end of the day, I like my team,” he added. “I think we win.”

Two talking points in advance of the game have been Hough’s winning streak against West Charlotte — but also Hough’s inability to reach a state championship, despite being a football powerhouse for a decade.

Baker said he believes this year’s Hough team is different.

“We were losing in the fourth quarter in three of our first five games,” he said. “I believe we would have lost those three games last year. But this year’s team is different.

The buildup to this game has been intense. Most local fans anticipated the matchup when the N.C. High School Athletic Association released the playoff brackets on Nov. 3.

Butler’s Hales, whose team lost to both the Lions and Huskies this season, said the two teams must avoid getting caught up in the buildup.

“The big thing will be the emotion stuff,” he said. “Who can handle the emotion part the best?”

There was considerable talk, once the West Charlotte-Hough matchup was set after last Friday’s results, that the game should be moved to a neutral site with a bigger seating capacity. Bank of America Stadium was mentioned by a lot of fans.

Baker said he wanted no part of that.

“We worked hard for this No. 1 seed,” he said. “They’ve got to come to Bailey Road.”

D1 college commits

West Charlotte and Hough have 26 players who have Division I offers. Here are the players committed.

HOUGH

Name, Pos., School

Will Berlin, DE, Cornell

Micah Bright, DB, Wake Forest*

Tyran Evans, WR, Miami (Fl)

Chris Hilliard, DL, Old Dominion

Samari Matthews, DB, Texas

LJ Porter, LB, East Carolina

Jarvis Potts, OL, Appalachian State

*-Injured; not playing

WEST CHARLOTTE

Name, pos., school

Rakim Finch, TE, Air Force

Elijah Littlejohn, OLB, Georgia

Sam Antoine Johnson, DL, West Georgia

Donte Nicholson, WR, Charlotte

Xavier Porter, DB, Elon

*Jorquis Broome, OL, has committed to D2 Lenoir-Rhyne but is attracting heavy D1 attention.

This story was originally published November 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM.