Four Clairton players to miss quarterfinal game after fight with Summit Academy

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, November 7, 2017 | 9:21 PM

Clairton will suspend additional football players beyond the two who were ejected in last Friday's fight with Summit Academy.

That was the plan Clairton administrators presented Tuesday to the WPIAL board of directors during a hearing in Green Tree, WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley said. Clairton was expected to suspend at least two additional players, he said.

Summit Academy, which had one player ejected, also will discipline additional athletes, but its football season already has ended. Clairton faces Carmichaels on Friday in a WPIAL Class A quarterfinals.

“Each of them has voluntarily elected to discipline kids additional to the ejection report,” O'Malley said. “Because of (Clairton's) involvement in the playoffs, we asked for them to identify and provide to us the names and the numbers of those kids no later than the end of the business day (Wednesday).”

After hearing from game officials, the football coaches and school administrators, the WPIAL was satisfied that both teams had addressed the situation appropriately, O'Malley said. The officials “were very complimentary of both staffs before, during and even after,” he said.

“When you look at the tape, it was an isolated incident,” O'Malley said. “From our perspective, what took place was unforeseen.”

The fight started after a touchdown run by Tre'sean Howard gave Clairton a 39-12 lead, and one play after quarterback Brendan Parsons was injured by a late hit. Two Clairton players and one from Summit were ejected as the benches cleared at Neil C. Brown Stadium. The ejected Clairton players already are ineligible to play this week under PIAA rules.

The WPIAL did not request additional suspensions but did censure both coaching staffs for failing to control their sidelines, placed each football program on probation for one year and directed the two schools to create plans that address sportsmanship issues, O'Malley said.

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Clairton, Summit Academy