CONCORD — Fresh from its history-making 25-22 win over A.L. Brown, West heads to Concord’s Bailey Stadium tonight to take on the Spiders.

It’s a classic case of frying-pan-to-fire for the Falcons (6-1 overall, 4-0 3A South Piedmont Conference). If West handles Part 2 of its back-to-back barnburners, it’s headed for its first conference championship since the school opened its doors in 1959.

But there’s reason for pessimism. West hasn’t beaten the Spiders since 1987, and Concord has plenty of motivation to prove it still owns the Falcons. A Spider win would secure yet another state playoff berth for Concord (7-1, 5-0) and will put it in position to win yet another conference championship. If, of course, the Spiders can also win at A.L. Brown on Nov. 3.

Don’t count Concord out. West coach Scott Young has been saying all week — at least every time someone tells him he’s got more talent than Concord — that “Concord always seems to find a way.”

“Concord’s got mentally tough kids who believe they’re going to win,” grimaces Young. “Our kids figured out a way to win at the end against Kannapolis last week. But Concord hasn’t been doing that for a week — they’ve been doing it for 20 years. One day, maybe we’ll be up there with the Concords and Kannapolises.”

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Someone asked Concord coach E.Z. Smith earlier this season how he felt about his team being replaced by West Rowan, Northwest Cabarrus and Central Cabarrus as A.L. Brown’s chief challengers.

What could Smith to do but laugh and walk away.

In some ways this has been E.Z’s most embattled year. Concord fans have been brutal. They’ve complained that the Spiders’ speed is down — although certainly not the toughness. Smith tells the critics that he lost eight defensive starters. He explains that he lost his great quarterback Jamel Jackson. “And Jamel, says Smith, “was 90 percent of our offense.”

Smith’s team mystifyingly lost an early-season game to Salisbury. It squeaked by Piedmont and Harding and Sun Valley, which is sort of like Duke’s men’s basketball team squeaking by Wofford and Campbell and Stetson.

But every week, Smith’s boys found a way to scratch out one more “W.” A last-minute field goal stopped Central; a clutch double-overtime touchdown run by much-maligned QBJared John, just getting in shape after missing months of workouts due to internal injuries suffered in last season’s playoffs, beat Northwest.

“We’re one play from being 8-0 and seven plays from being 0-8,” Smith says, in all seriousness. “The kids have somehow persevered.”

The season has hardly been pretty, but that matters little now. The only relevant number is that the Spiders are 5-0 in the SPC.

But, then, isn’t this where Smith always has his Spiders this time of year? This is his 21st year at the helm and he’s already assured of his 20th winning season. He’s taken his team to the playoffs 15 times.

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Smith graduated from Concord High in 1972. His senior year he was All-State in football and baseball, all-conference in basketball.

“A lot of alls,” he says with a chuckle, “but I never got invited to play in a single all-star game.”

Smith left high school for the University of South Carolina without a thought of spending his life as a football coach.

“My goal was to play in the NFL,” he says. “I figured I’d major in business and become a multi-millionaire by the time I was 40. Then I’d sit back and invest. Little did I know.”

Smith is now 46, and obviously high school coaches don’t get to be multi-millionaires. But he’s hardly miffed about the hand fate’s dealt him. After graduating from USC, where he met his future wife, he coached four years of high school ball in Florida. Then on Feb. 28, 1980, Concord offered him its head coaching job. Twenty years later, that date remains etched in his memory banks.

“One of the biggest days of my life,” he says.

Needless to say, things have worked out quite nicely for Smith.

His winning formula, by the way, isn’t complicated.

“First, I’ve had loyal assistants,” he says. “Second, we’ve always had sound defensive principles. Third, the kids who have come through here have always been proud of our tradition. Maybe their daddies played here. If dad didn’t, maybe it was an uncle or an older brother.”

Smith’s become an icon in Concord. He gets a lump in his throat as he tells the story of how a woman came up to him with her newborn son recently and asked him to promise that he’d still be coaching Concord when the little one was old enough to play.

“That’s a high compliment,” Smith says. “I wouldn’t trade a minute of the things that have happened to me since I came back home. I’ve been blessed.”

The two biggest blessings have been a daughter and a son, both of whom are athletic and smart. Daughter Audrey Lee was Cabarrus County’s Athlete of the Year a few years back. Now, she’s a junior at N.C. State.

Son E.Z. Smith IV, known to the world simply as “Z,” is a senior at Concord. He’s a tremendous two-way lineman, good enough to sign early with Penn State.

“I’d brag about him a lot more if he wasn’t my son,” says Smith. “He’s a real good player and a better person. Win or lose, he’s the first person in line to shake hands after a ballgame. He knows he’s always under a microscope and he’s accepted that responsibility.”

While it’s been a tough year in terms of fan expectations, the soothing presence of “Z” has more than balanced things for his dad. The E.Z.’s are inseparable, riding to school together, eating dinner together and constantly discussing strategy.

“He helps me out. He knows more about football than some coaches do,” said the elder Smith. “The kid’s been watching game film since he was 6.”

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The sole disappointment for Smith is the same thing that gives his critics ammunition. He hasn’t won the big one yet, while his not-so-friendly rival, A.L. Brown, won state titles in 1989 and 1997. Four times the Spiders have made the state semifinals — 1990, ‘91, ‘98 and ‘99 — only to fall one step short of the title game.

“But it’s a lot harder to stay at the top than it is to get there,”Smith says philosophically. “We haven’t won the game, but we’ve been pretty close to the top for a long time. Ijust wish people would lighten up on these kids a little bit and enjoy what they’ve accomplished.”

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Gametime tonight is 7:30. West, new kid on the block, with all the strength and speed in the world — against Concord — a package of tough cookies in black and gold with all the tradition in the world, plus the home field.

“West’s a mirror image of us as far as defense being their forte,” said Smith. “But they’re more explosive on offense and maybe that makes us underdogs a little bit. I know we’re ranked (No. 6) and they’re not, but that’s simply a matter of tradition.”

But tradition, after all, is what this one is all about. Keeping it alive at Concord — or giving birth to it at West.