Football: Gasca made the right decision

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It was an emotional final few minutes on the Venice sideline tonight. Players were crying. A few slammed their helmets against the ground.

As Gondoliers Coach Angelo Gasca prepared to line his team up for the postgame handshake line following a 48-32 loss to Narbonne in a City Section Division I quarterfinal playoff game, Gauchos running back Melvin Davis began making taunting gestures and pointing at the scoreboard.

That was enough for Gasca to decide not to let his players go through the handshake line, and it was the right call. Several Gondoliers were extremely emotional and appeared ready to fight. Even as players walked off the field, several had to be restrained from going after their counterparts.

Coaches from both teams also jawed at each other, and Narbonne Coach Manuel Douglas said a Venice player had uttered a racial epithet at him late in the game.

Who’s to blame? There’s plenty to go around. But an emotional situation that could have resulted in an all-out melee was defused by Gasca’s decision to keep his players away from the Gauchos. Douglas said ‘we should have gotten them together and quashed it,’ but that wasn’t likely to happen with tensions running so high.

Douglas said Davis would be appropriately dealt with for his gestures.

--Ben Bolch