North Carolina high school football game ends early after player punches referee

What was a hard-fought game between a pair of North Carolina high school football programs unfortunately ended in an ugly situation on Friday night.

In a matchup between High Point’s T Wingate Andrews and Greensboro’s Ben L Smith, the Red Raiders led 16-14 with just over two minutes to go in the fourth quarter of a low-scoring battle. Smith had the ball on its own 25-yard-line as the offense looked to make a final march down the field to win the game. But they were stopped on a 4th down run play just short of the line to gain, likely ending the game.

Before play resumed though, a Smith player threw a punch at the head referee, according to a report from the High Point Enterprise. The player had to be physically restrained from further escalating the situation and was eventually escorted to the sideline by a teammate.

However, a few more Golden Eagles players, including the one that threw the punch, made their way toward the Andrews sideline, as did spectators streaming out of the stands. At that point, the game was called and fans were told to leave the stadium.

“That was unacceptable, unacceptable,” Andrews head coach Mook Reynolds told the newspaper. “I am proud of my guys. We want to put them in frustrating situations when we work out and practice so they learn what maturity is and execute through adversity. … We never want to do anything like what happened. I’m proud of my guys. We didn’t have anything like that, and I think that was one of the biggest differences. Hats off to our team for the level of discipline that we coach and play and expect out of our kids.”

Andrews ultimately took home the victory despite the chaos, moving to 4-0 on the season. Smith, which put up a strong effort and had a chance to win the game on its final drive before being stopped short, fell to 1-2 with the loss.

Ugly weekend for North Carolina prep football

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only disturbing incident surrounding a high school game in the Tar Heel State over the weekend.

Two teenagers were shot at a game between Tarboro and SouthWest Edgecombe in Edgecombe County. Tarboro won the game 14-0, but that wasn’t what was on the minds of anyone inside the stadium afterwards.

“We’re facing a terrible situation right now with so much violence all across our state and across the nation,” the two schools said in a joint statement released Friday. “We’re certainly not happy this has reached our community, and we all need to work together to stop this for the sake of us all — our families and neighbors. We have faith that we can.”

On Monday, the Edgecombe County Sheriff said none of the people involved were affiliated with SouthWest Edgecombe or Tarboro schools or the football teams.