Fight between 2 referees during Beaver County youth football game caught on camera

ALIQUIPPA, Pa. — Football games should consist of running, tackling, throwing, and scoring; but this past Saturday when two rival little league teams Aliquippa and Beaver Falls faced off, the game ended in blows between referees instead.

An online video shows Aliquippa with possession of the ball when a referee throws a flag for a face mask penalty. The game stops and three referees begin to discuss the play. Then the conversation gets heated one of the refs can be heard saying, “Woah, woah.”  Then suddenly, several punches are thrown as the altercation takes over the field.

“You got to think before you make a decision,” said Jason Harvey the Aliquippa youth football coach.

On Monday Channel 11 spoke with Coach Jason Harvey of Aliquippa. He was leading a team of 8, 9 and 10-year-olds on Saturday morning and watched a game his kids worked hard for turn into chaos.

“It was a great day until that point. Why did you punch the man?” Harvey questioned.

Harvey said the day started as a celebration, two rival teams, battling it out.

“In my eyes, I think the game should be reconciled in some type of way because it’s unfair to my kids and it’s unfair to the Beaver Falls kids,” Harvey said.

Players on the field watched as two adults went back and forth throwing punches; something the Beaver County Youth Football League told Channel 11 is unacceptable.

“This is not the example we wish to set for our youth, and moving forward neither of these referees will be permitted to participate in the Beaver County Youth Football League,” said Christopher Trent, President of the Beaver County Youth Football League.

Harvey said this is a moment his players won’t get back,

“We have to learn to show our kids more than just violence and shooting,” he said.

And its behavior that’s goes against what his team and the league stand for.

“We got to show our kids how to be adults,” Harvey said.

Ultimately, Beaver Falls won the game 14 to 13.

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