Column: Marshall-Manual Arts football playoff game has an untimely ending

There was plenty of blame to go around Friday afternoon when the City Section Division III football playoff opener between Los Angeles Marshall and host Manual Arts ended with a controversial finish.

Marshall had the ball on the Manual Arts one-yard line with 4 minutes 35 seconds left in the fourth quarter, trailing, 42-36. The Barristers were hurrying to beat a 5 p.m. deadline to end the game because of darkness. They lined up in shotgun formation. The snap was made. The quarterback began to run into the end zone for a tying touchdown.

But wait, there was a whistle. The officials ruled it was 5 p.m. Game over. The officials sprinted off the field. Manual Arts was awarded the victory.

On Saturday morning, Marshall Coach Clay Johnston insisted “as certain as the sun comes up tomorrow” that the officials blew their whistle after the snap had been made.

“Everyone at the game knows,” he said.

Of course, if that had happened, it would be a serious blunder on the part of the officials.

“That’s ludicrous,” said a veteran official when asked if a whistle blown in the middle of a play to end a game at 5 p.m. would be appropriate.

Tony Crittendon, the assigner for City Section officials, said the referee who worked the game told him the whistle was blown before the final play.

Marshall players were left crying. Johnston said he would have had no problem if the officials had stopped the game at 5 p.m. under the City Section sundown rule that games with no lights must end 10 minutes after sundown. But he objected to doing it in the middle of a play.

City Section Commissioner John Aguirre said Saturday that National Federation of State High School Assn. rules don’t allow Marshall to protest the result.

“You can’t protest officials’ judgment,” he said. “The game is over. If the official determined the whistle blew before the snap of the ball, the whistle blew before the snap. We play the game as the rules dictate.”

Blame can be placed on a late Marshall bus that caused a 2 p.m. kickoff time to be moved to 2:30 p.m. Blame also can be placed on the lack of lights at Manual Arts. And, of course, if you’re a Marshall fan, you’re not too happy with the officials preventing a final play because the clock struck midnight . . . oops, 5 p.m.