Dunbar football forced to forfeit Southwestern game
Dunbar's No. 4 football team had to forfeit Saturday's game against Southwestern as a consequence of a bench-clearing brawl that broke out in the final minutes of last weekend's game against Dunbar, D.C. at the I-95 Kickoff Classic at Morgan State.
Poets coach Lawrence Smith (right) said every player who leaves the bench in a situation like that receives a one-game suspension and too many players were suspended to field a team.
The incident happened with just under five minutes left in the Kickoff Classic game. Smith said the Poets had recovered an onside kick when an opposing player made a blind-side hit on one of the Poets. A Poets player retaliated, Smith said, and "there was a lot of pushing and shoving and it got totally out of hand."
Fans also ran onto the field and the game was called at that point The Poets took a 22-8 victory, but the game cost them what likely would have been a victory over Baltimore City foe Southwestern.
Smith said Poets officials would not appeal the suspensions, which he said are automatic under both Baltimore City and Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association rules.
"The thing is, you do things and you've got to deal with the consequences," Smith said. "It's a loss, but we'll rebound from it. It's a life lesson for the kids. These kids, they go on and some of them play in college and they will always remember this and learn from it and you hope they will use better judgement in the future."
"In football, you're going to have pushing and shoving and you have to make better decisions," added Smith, who said the Poets' focus now is to leave this behind and get ready for next week's game against City.
Dunbar, D.C. faces similar consequences and will have to forfeit its first D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association West game against Bell on Oct. 7, The Washington Post reported. Two Crimson Tide players were also to sit out Saturday's game against Southern Durham (N.C.), according to The Post.
