"Nobody knows why cramps really happen, but Friday night's Gardena Serra-Sierra Canyon high school football game took the issue to an unprecedented level. Serra players kept cramping on defense, repeatedly slowing down Sierra Canyon's up-tempo offense. By the end of the third quarter, Sierra Canyon coach Jon Ellinghouse had seen enough. His 11 offensive players, at his direction, simultaneously went to the ground and engaged in fake cramping."
"That caused an enraged Serra coach Scott Altenberg to go on the field and be held back by others. Officials halted the game briefly and called 15-yard penalties on Sierra Canyon and Serra. Ellinghouse said after his team's 30-0 victory that he was frustrated with the repeated game stoppages and in hindsight, regrets having his players engage in the fake cramps."
""I went back and watched the film just to make sure there wasn't any malice or that it didn't look like we were trying to run up the score. Honestly, there was nothing more we could have done short of sitting our guys for the entire game.""
Sierra Canyon offensive players faked cramps in unison late in the third quarter to slow Gardena Serra's defense, prompting officials to stop play and assess 15-yard penalties on both teams. A Serra coach ran onto the field in anger and had to be restrained. Sierra Canyon won 30-0, and the Sierra Canyon coach later expressed regret about instructing the fake cramps. Elsewhere, Salesian defeated Cantwell-Sacred Heart 91-13 despite early substitutions and no running clock until the third quarter, with review finding no malice. A Mira Costa-Lawndale game was halted early because of a security issue.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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