THE HIGH SCHOOLS / STEVE ELLING : Wounded of Crespi, Chaminade Up and Walking

Crespi High quarterback Cody Smith was sitting in a hospital room minding his own business--in this case, the business was his mind--when he received a surprise visitor. Smith, who suffered a mild concussion in Crespi’s 21-17 victory over Chaminade on Friday night, already had been poked, prodded, X-rayed and waylaid.

Suddenly, a kindred spirit walked through the door in the form of Chaminade’s Mike Szekely. The Eagles’ defensive end had been taken from the field on a stretcher in the final seconds of the game.

“He walked in and said, ‘Hey, bud,’ ” Smith said. “He was wearing a neck brace, but he was OK.”

The fact that both players were able to make light of the situation marked a fortunate end to a game that was punctuated by what appeared to be serious injuries to Smith, Szekely and Crespi lineman Jeff Flohr.

It was a dizzying ending in more ways than one. All three players suffered head or neck injuries, were taken to the same area hospital, recovered and were released after midnight.

Smith sustained a concussion while throwing a third-quarter interception. He said he recalls blacking out for a few seconds, then spending the rest of the game in a groggy state.

“Everything was spinning and I couldn’t get control of it,” said Smith, who returned to the game and led Crespi to the winning score.

Strangely, Szekely was injured on the play that preceded Smith’s game-winning, 13-yard touchdown pass to Joe Ruggiero with 26 seconds to play.

Szekely’s neck was snapped sideways by one of Smith’s legs while Szekely was trying to tackle the quarterback. As Szekely lay on his back, his face mask was removed with wire cutters and his neck was immobilized. Szekely then was strapped to a stretcher and taken to a hospital in Woodland Hills. He was X-rayed and his condition was diagnosed as a muscle sprain in the neck.

Smith and Flohr were just a few minutes behind Szekely. As Crespi boarded the bus, Smith began to wear down. So did Flohr, who was injured on the scoring pass from Smith to Ruggiero--the play that followed Szekely’s injury.

“I got blindsided,” said Flohr, who sustained a mild concussion. “I saw the touchdown pass, but after that . . .”

After the game, Flohr first walked to the wrong team bus, then began to hyperventilate. As he was being removed from the Crespi bus, he fell off the steps and onto the pavement.

Paramedics were summoned, and, meanwhile, Smith nearly blacked out. Both were taken off the bus and loaded, side by side, in the paramedics’ truck.

“It sort of puts it all in perspective,” Smith said. “A head or back injury is serious stuff.”

Checking out: It isn’t exactly the equivalent of spitting on the flag, but the ending of the game between Burroughs and Alhambra was pretty close. In fact, it was unconstitutional.

The Foothill League constitution requires that tie football games be settled via the California tiebreaker system. At Keppel High on Friday night, Alhambra and Burroughs finished regulation play deadlocked at 14-14.

As expected, the teams gathered to prepare for the tiebreaker. There was one hang-up: The officials were headed home.

Coaches chased them down, but the officials refused to return, maintaining that they should have been informed before the game that the league uses a tiebreaker.