West Charlotte Nips Summerville 20-19, Green Wave At Berkeley Next Week



By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Summerville—West Charlotte built a 14-0 lead in the first quarter against Summerville, but the Green Wave rallied to trail 20-19 with three seconds to go in the game, when a missed 31-yard field goal cost them the victory.

After the tough loss, Summerville head coach Ian Rafferty, told the HSSR, “That was a good football team we played tonight and they kind of stuck it to us a little bit and we just couldn’t do enough to win the game,” said Coach Rafferty. “I was proud of our kids, and I felt like they fought hard and we overcame some adversity in the first half but just came up a little short.”

Coach Rafferty made a decision to go for two when Summerville scored on an 11-yard touchdown run with 2:02 left in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 20-19, after the two-point play failed. “We could have kicked the PAT and tied the game, but I made a decision to go for two and that’s on me,” said Coach Rafferty. “I thought we had a good two-point play drawn up and we were just trying to take the lead.”

Summerville played the game without top junior receiver Terv Davis (5-11,175) who currently has 13 major college offers. He missed the game with a hamstring pull.

“When u do not have one of your best players it always hurts, but that is in no excuse for our loss,” said Coach Rafferty. “Just about e very team has to deal with injuries.”

Coach Rafferty said you always learn more from a loss going forward. “We just have to prepare better and be ready to play,” he said. “We have to coach better and play better. Sometimes when you start the season and beat a couple really good teams like we did, you might not prepare quite as hard. We have to do a better job with this.”

West Charlotte, head coached by Darryl McFadden, scored on their opening drive of the game on a 10 play 73-yard drive capped off by a two- yard run by soph quarterback Devareus Hill. Hill also ran in a two- point conversion to make the score 8-0 with 7:49 left in the first period.

The Lions made it 14-0 with 5:05 left in the first period on a 96-yard pick six by Lions DB Jesiah Whitlock and the PAT failed to make it 14-0 at that point.

Summerville scored with .30 left in the opening period on a 10- yard pass from junior quarterback Ethan Dwater to receiver Jaelyn Pounds. Beaver made the PAT to make the score 14-7.

The Lions went 20-7, scoring their final points of the game with 9:30 left in the second period, on a 46-yard pass from Hill to WR JD McDonald. The PAT failed.

The Green Wave cut the deficit to 20-10 at the half on a 40-yard field goal by Beaver with 3:10 remaining.

Summerville received the ball to open the third period and looked like a different team on offense. RB Jayven Williams carried the ball five times gaining over 30 yards, while Dwaters connected to receiver Quinteen Biting on a 31-yard pass play that carried down to the 10-yard line. The drive stalled and on fourth down Beaver made his second field goal of the game from 25 yards, with 8:25 left, to cut the deficit to 20-13.

Following a punt, on their next drive the Green Wave drove 68 yards on six plays with soph RB Maxwell Grent scoring on an 11-yard run with 2:02 left in the third period. Summerville elected to go for two points, but the conversion failed making the final score 20-19.

Summerville got the ball back following a punt with 2:38 left in the game, at their own 21-yard line. A tackle breaking 51-yard TD run by Jayven Williams with 1:14 left was called back due to a holding call. Several plays later, the Green Wave moved the ball down to the     9-yard line aided by a personal foul penalty against West Charlotte.

On Summerville’s first field goal attempt, a penalty flag was called against West Charlotte before Nathaniel Beaver made the field goal which went right through the uprights, but the penalty was called even before the ball was snapped. On his second attempt the ball sailed wide left as time expired, giving the visitors a hard-fought one- point win.

For the game Dwaters completed 9-of-18 passes for 75 yards and one TD. The leading rusher for Summerville was Williams with 19 carries for 114 yards.

West Charlotte QB Hill completed 13-0f-21 passes for 177 yards and one TD. The two top receivers for the Lions were McDonald with six catches for 72 yards including a 46-yard TD reception along with Jachel Rankin who had four catches for 77 yards.

Summerville will play at Berkeley next week while West Charlotte is at West Mecklenburg.