ON THE SIDELINES : Sideline Tackle Wins Suspension

Pacific University officials have suspended from the football team a player who stepped off the sidelines and decked a Linfield player late in Saturday’s game between the two schools.

Bob Bonn, athletic director at the Forest Grove school, said Monday that starting linebacker Joe Schmelzer, a junior, will not return to the team this year.

Schmelzer was watching from the sidelines in the fourth quarter as Linfield defensive back Tony Chiu intercepted a Pacific pass at the Linfield 40-yard line and raced past the Boxers’ bench. Chiu was about 30 yards shy of a touchdown when Schmelzer stepped onto the field and flattened him with a shoulder to the chest.

Bonn said Schmelzer, a 20-year-old junior from Palo Alto, “feels terrible. He was in tears after the game, and he apologized to his own team,” Bonn said. “It’s a situation he regrets deeply.”