Updates: South Annville Township police investigating helmet swinging incident at football game, chief says | District 3: Annville-Cleona, Hamburg officials handling on-field football incident
According to a report, South Annville Township police are considering filing charges after an ugly on-field altercation during Annville-Cleona’s football game against Hamburg last Friday night.
The play in question came during the third quarter, with Hamburg leading Annville-Cleona 22-10.
Video replays show Hamburg quarterback Joey Cominsky ripping the helmet off Annville-Cleona’s Josh Hartman, and then Cominsky taking at least two swipes at Hartman as the Little Dutchmen’s lineman lay on the ground.
"@OBriBoost: Hamburg player beats Anville Cleona player with his helmet. https://t.co/CLzqNxsKuV" @BigCampon
— Chris Kreider (@CKreider56) September 7, 2013
“The Hamburg kid kinda flipped out and took the scrum to a completely different level,” Annville-Cleona coach Terry Lehman said. “Our kid is OK. He was able to go back into the game, but he has a cut on his head.”
In the aftermath, Annville-Cleona’s Taylor Prentice jumped into the play late to break up the fiasco, and Prentice and Cominsky were ejected from the game.
Per PIAA rules, Prentice and Cominsky must sit out their team’s next game.
According to a report, Hamburg principal Christopher Spohn said Cominsky will be sitting out Friday's game vs. Northern Lebanon.
"We followed our board-approved policies and procedures dealing with this situation," Spohn told the Reading Eagle.
Spohn politely declined to comment when asked by PennLive if Cominsky will be back on the field in Week 4. He said he couldn't discus student punishments.
Now, according to a report, the police are involved.
“The police are doing their investigation, and that’s where it stands at this point,” Annville-Cleona athletic director Tommy Long said. “That’s about all I can tell you.”
"It will be a very lengthy process, I can tell you that," South Annville Township police chief Ben Sutcliffe told PennLive. "It is premature at this point to say anything about charges being filed or not being filed."
District 3 chairman Ron Kennedy, Donegal’s athletic director, said the district is not involved — yet.
“District 3 will not be doing anything at this point,” Kennedy said. “This is a school issue, and the schools are handling it.”
Kennedy also confirmed that there will be no meeting between Annville-Cleona, Hamburg and the District 3 committee.
“It was erroneously reported that there will be a meeting on Wednesday,” Kennedy said. “That’s not true.”
Instead, Kennedy said, both schools are in the process of filing paperwork to District 3 football chairperson John Zeigler.
Any time a player — or in this case players — is ejected from a game, the schools involved must send papers to Zeigler.
“It’s always disappointing when you see something like this,” Long said. “You certainly don’t want to see a situation like this within the lines of a game — football, basketball, wrestling, whatever.”
Hamburg went on to win the game over Annville-Cleona 25-22 on a last-second field goal.
“I will say this,” Lehman said. “Our kids really made a positive out of a very horrible negative. They really hung in there, came back and played as a team.”