Gardena May Be Awarded a Forfeit

The Taft High football team plans to forfeit its 34-20 victory over Gardena on Friday because ineligible players participated in the game, Taft Coach Larry Stewart told the Daily News this week.

The forfeit won’t become official until the City Section rules on it, but Taft is preparing a report on the violation, Stewart said.

Gardena Coach Mike Sakurai said he was informed of the Daily News article Wednesday but had not been notified by Taft as of Thursday afternoon. Gardena dropped to 1-1 with the loss at Taft in Woodland Hills. The Mohicans play host to San Fernando at 7:30 tonight.

“I haven’t found out anything,” Sakurai said. “As far as I’m concerned, we’re still 1-1. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It would be nice to be 2-0, but we’re just going to wait and see what happens.”

Stewart told the Daily News the problem stems from Taft players reporting inaccurate summer school grades. The mistake was caught when official grades came out Monday, Stewart said.

Stewart declined to identify the players, but he said sophomore running back Derrell Patton, who rushed for 172 yards against Gardena, would be held out of Thursday night’s game at Banning.