Rancho football to forfeit homecoming game

Rancho's football team will pay a hefty cost for an ugly moment during its rivalry game with Las Vegas High last week.

The Rams will forfeit their homecoming game on Friday against Chaparral after a fight with Las Vegas on the Rancho sideline was ruled a bench-clearing brawl.

"It was considered a bench-clearing brawl, and by NIAA rules, an automatic forfeit on Friday against Chaparral," first-year Rancho coach Tom Pletsch said.

The fight came late in the third quarter after Rancho quarterback Dion Southern was tackled out of bounds.

Four Rancho players and one Las Vegas player were ejected during the game. Pletsch said officials from the Clark County School District ruled that because Rancho players left their sideline during the skirmish, that the team would forfeit its next game.

"All the Rancho coaches were trying to break up the fights," Pletsch said. "They kept popping up in different spots. As they were popping up, our kids wandered on the field."

Pletsch said he felt breaking up the fights was more important than keeping the rest of the players on the sideline.

"If that means we have to lose this game because we did what we thought was right, so be it," Pletsch said. "But that's wrong."

The Rams had lost 30 consecutive games before winning two straight earlier this season, and expected to have a chance to even their record at 3-3 in the homecoming matchup with Chaparral.

"For the kids to lose a homecoming game, it doesn't just affect the football team, it affects the community," Pletsch said. "The pageantry, the dance, everything about homecoming is kind of tarnished because of it. You can put it back on the kids, but the reality of it is there very easily could have been three or four guys ejected, and that could have been it, but that wasn't the decision."

Officials from the school district's athletic office did not return calls seeking comment.