BY GREG LUCA | STAFF WRITER
DONNA — As PSJA Southwest’s Jorge Cantu was sprinting towards midfield in celebration of the only goal in Tuesday’s District 32-5A opener, Donna High’s Hector Ramirez crashed the party by throwing a punch.
PSJA Southwest’s bench stormed onto the field in reaction, setting off a brief skirmish with shoving and jawing on both sides as Bennie LaPrade Stadium’s PA announcer asked for security to take the field. After both teams returned to their sidelines, school and game officials met at midfield for about 10 minutes and ultimately decided to call the game with 16:01 left to play, giving PSJA Southwest a 1-0 decision.
“Some of my bench players, unfortunately they came into the field to pull back the kids to make sure they’re protected,” PSJA Southwest coach Jesus Palomin said. “They’re saying that due to that reason, they invaded the field, that they were instigating the fight. So it was a decision of the refs to stop the game. I’m shocked with this decision.”
Ramirez and Southwest’s Humberto Medina were the only players ejected from the game. Palomin said Medina approached the Donna goalie after the punch was thrown to tell him to control his players, but the referees saw it as an instigator.
Palomin said his bench players were only on the field to restrain their teammates, but Donna High coach Mario Hernandez saw them shoving players from Donna. Hernandez also took offense at Southwest’s Medina making a comment to his goalie.
“Once you score a goal, you don’t tell the goalie whatever that guy told him,” Hernandez said. “You cannot do that.”
Hernandez was most disappointed that PSJA Southwest’s players left the bench to further the conflict on the field, although he admits to not seeing the punch from Ramirez that set them off.
“Why did (Palomin) let the bench come in?,” Hernandez said. “That’s why I was upset. I told him, you have a good team and good luck on your season, and yeah we lost 1-0, but it’s just that you need to control your kids. That’s it.
“He says that they came in to stop the fight, but they came in to instigate the fight.”
Hernandez said that before he and his assistant coaches took the field to try to regain control of the situation, he made sure to tell his bench to stay put. Throughout the altercation, none of them left their seat. Meanwhile, some of the fans on the Donna side began shouting in the direction of the field, drawing a reaction from the much smaller contingent of PSJA Southwest supporters on the opposite side.
“It did start getting heated in the bleachers,” Palomin said. “The fans, they started cussing at our players. It’s like I told the ref, there’s no reason why an adult that’s on the bleachers is cussing to a 15 year old. It was uncalled for.”
Although these teams had never met before, even in a tournament setting, pushing and shoving was the norm throughout the night.
The coaches attributed the chippy play to the start of the district season, with both teams eager to prove themselves. Donna High brings back a young team after losing the majority of a roster that failed to live up to expectations last year. PSJA Southwest has made a impressive playoff runs each of the past two seasons, but is still working to establish itself as a program in only its fifth year of competition.
Southwest plays a ball control style, and Donna ramped up the pressure to try to counter.
“We noticed that they weren’t letting us play,” Palomin said. “Every few minutes or every few seconds, they were just shoving our players around.”
With Donna committing multiple players on the defensive end, Palomin pulled his forwards back towards the midfield and gave them free reign to dribble. Michael Martin took advantage of the mandate, taking control from about 30 yards out and evading three defenders before finding Cantu, who flicked home the game winner with the outside of his foot.
“We’ve experienced fouls like this, but we’ve never experienced when an opponent comes over and punches one of our players,” Palomin said. “It was unfortunate that that happened.”