St. Genevieve Football Coach Clears His Players in Brawl

St. Genevieve High Coach Mark Lovett will not take disciplinary action against his players for their role in a brawl that ended Saturday’s nonleague football game against Salesian at Roosevelt High in East Los Angeles.

Game officials stopped the contest with 4 minutes 15 seconds remaining and St. Genevieve leading, 32-22, after a fight broke out on the St. Genevieve sidelines.

St. Genevieve was accorded the victory.

According to Lovett and a Times reporter, the brawl began when Salesian quarterback Carlos Alvarez threw a punch at a Valiant player on the St. Genevieve sideline after being forced out of bounds short of a first down on third and five.

Salesian players and spectators rushed toward the St. Genevieve sideline, but coaches and police officers restored order within five minutes.

“It was more like a wrestling match than a fight,” Lovett said. “It could have turned into a real ugly situation, but nobody seemed to be hurt.”

The stands were cleared and Salesian players were led from the field. St. Genevieve playersremained on the field and were led to their buses 15 minutes later.

Earlier, spectators threw ice and soda cans at St. Genevieve players going to the locker room at halftime.

“From what I heard and from people I talked to, it isn’t our fault,” said Lovett, in his second season.

“As far as I’m concerned, none of our players were the cause of it.”

St. Genevieve and Salesian have a two-year contract that expires next year after the teams meet in the Valley.

Lovett said the contract would not be renewed.

Salesian Coach Jerry Scott could not be reached for comment. St. Genevieve suspended an assistant coach and two players after the Valiants took part in a fight with Chaminade during a nonleague game last season.

“We’re getting the reputation for being a fighting school,” Lovett said. “We haven’t had a kid kicked out of a game this season and we’re just trying to get the program winning.”

St. Genevieve, 1-9 last season, is 2-2. Bill Clark, a Southern Section administrator, said the incident is under review, pending a report from each school.