Wrong Call Now All Right for Avelar

The holiday season is over, but Roberto Avelar will accept a belated present: peace of mind.

A safety on the North Hollywood High football team, Avelar has been living with the knowledge that his pass-interference penalty was key in Belmont High’s 34-30 victory over the Huskies in a first-round City Section 3-A Division playoff game in November.

With a minute left, Belmont converted a fourth-and-52 play when Avelar was called for interfering with a receiver on a double-pass play.

The Belmont quarterback threw the ball behind the line of scrimmage to a halfback, who tossed it downfield to a receiver.

Such a play is legal in high school.

But officials said Avelar hit the receiver early and a penalty was called. Belmont was awarded a first down and went on to score the winning touchdown.

Nobody on the field questioned the pass-interference call.

Somebody should have. Once a pass has been completed on such a play, a second completion can be stopped using almost any means necessary--even what would normally be called interference.

North Hollywood Coach Gary Gray found that out when a referee called last week conducting an informal poll on officiating in the region.

The conversation turned to North Hollywood’s playoff loss and the referee, who did not cover the game, explained the rule.

“He said, ‘You realize that isn’t pass interference,’ ” Gray said. “It’s a free ball once it leaves the second kid’s hands.”

Another referee contacted by The Times confirmed that the penalty was improperly called.

Avelar, who has been troubled by the penalty, was relieved.

“It hurt me, but now it’s not my fault,” said Avelar, who has watched the play on videotape about 100 times. “We should have won that game.”

The bad news: “We still lost the game no matter what,” Gray said.

But there’s good news for Avelar.

“We can now tell him,” Gray said, “he didn’t technically do anything wrong.”