A Los Angeles high school principal has apologized for 'poor sportsmanship' after her team thrashed its mis-matched rivals 106-0 and admitted they should have toned their gameplay down.
Inglewood High School Principal Debbie Tate issued a statement on Monday in response to the blowout score, which was condemned by the losing coach for being 'classless'.
The team scored so many points that the scoreboard at El Camino College - where the game was played - did not have enough digits to even display the score. Instead, the final on the board read 6-0.
According to Athletic Business there's a sportsmanship rule in high school football to prevent coaches from unfairly pitting two teams against each other and thus running up hugely-disparate scores.
The rule was put into effect during the 2017 season and does not allow high schools to display game scores if a team is winning by more than 42 points.
When last Friday's Inglewood-versus-Morningside game ended and the board displayed the more-than-100 point difference, the winning team was slammed on Twitter by players, coaches and ESPN commentators.
Inglewood High School Principal Debbie Tate (pictured) issued a statement Monday apologizing for displaying the 106-0 score, which was slammed as showing 'poor sportsmanship'
According to Athletic Business there's a sportsmanship rule in high school football to prevent coaches from unfairly pitting two teams against each other and thus running up scores. The rule was put into effect during the 2017 season and does not allow high schools to display game scores if a team is winning by more than 42 points
Scoreboard at football game where Inglewood High School beat Monarch High 106-0 shows a final score of 6-0 because it didn't have space to show triple digits
Inglewood High School, which has seven players being recruited by college programs, put up 59 points in the first quarter alone against Monarch High before piling on another 57 points (scoreboard pictured reading 79-0)
'I apologize to the Morningside High School football team, coaches and community members as well as the Inglewood High School community for Friday night's football game,' Principal Tate's letter read.
'While Friday's game did not reflect our best judgement as administrators...the football players and their coaches have worked hard all season and deserve our respect,' it added.
Inglewood quarterback and UCLA-bound Justyn Martin (pictured) threw 13 touchdowns, including a two-point conversion pass with a 104-0 lead
The county administrator for the entire district Dr Erika Torres also issued a statement saying the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) 'are saddened beyond words'.
Dr Torres also noted that the district is conducting a 'full investigation and (will) take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that a similar outcome never happens again under an IUSD athletic program'.
Inglewood High School, which has seven players being recruited by college programs, put up 59 points in the first quarter alone against Monarch High before piling on another 57 points.
'It was a classless move,' Morningside coach Brian Collins said on Saturday.
'Go play St John Bosco and Mater Dei,' he
