Schools Suspend Players : Football: Four Sylmar starters and five Poly starters will miss games for roles in last week’s fight.

Four starters from the Sylmar High football team will be suspended for Friday’s Valley Pac-8 Conference game against North Hollywood, including two who will miss the rest of the regular season, Sylmar Athletic Director Bob Miller said Tuesday.

The players were suspended for their roles in a bench-clearing fight during the Spartans’ game against Poly last Friday.

Sylmar administrators refused to identify the names of the four suspended players. However, Miller did confirm that the players were starters.

Sylmar is undefeated and ranked second among area teams by the Times. “It’s going to hurt our defense,” Sylmar Coach Jeff Engilman said. “We’re going to accept a challenge that some of our guys aren’t going to be there.”

Poly suspended five players, all starters, for Friday’s game against Canoga Park, Coach Tim Feeley said. Cameron Hilton, Poly’s leading rusher, was among those suspended. Tight end Paul Cespedes, tackle Darryl Mathis and linebacker Elmer Sanchez will also miss one game. Linebacker Jose Hernandez was suspended for two games, because he helped instigate the fight, Feeley said. All of the players are seniors.

“I think we’ll be all right but we’ve got to move a bunch of people around,” Feeley said. “They know what they did was wrong and they’re willing to take responsibility for their roles. It wasn’t an easy situation for anybody.”

The suspensions were issued from each school after administrators reviewed film of the scuffle, which occurred near the end of the first half of Sylmar’s 69-6 victory.

Sylmar’s suspended players will practice with the team but they will not be allowed on the sidelines during games. Miller said the two players who will sit out Sylmar’s final two games will be reinstated for the playoffs, which start Nov. 18.

Staff writer Bryan Rodgers contributed to this story.