CIF hands down punishment after brawl sends player to the hospital
Archbishop Riordan will get to play in the NorCal Division I semifinals — but which players will be available is yet to be determined after a brawl ended their quarterfinal game on Thursday night.
With just over a minute left in the game and Riordan leading by nine points, an Inderkum-Sacramento foul to stop the clock led to pushing, and eventually, punches that sent one Riordan player to the hospital.
In a statement just before noon on Friday, the California Interscholastic Federation announced that fourth-seeded Riordan will be able to play against Granada on Saturday night.
But the CIF said that lower-seeded Granada will play host to the game instead of Riordan, which was the highest seed left of the four Division I semifinalists.
The CIF also confirmed to the Bay Area News Group that Riordan would not be allowed to host any more games in the NorCal Division I playoffs, despite being the highest-seeded team left — meaning that if Riordan were to win on Saturday and advance to the NorCal final, it would have to travel to the winner of the game between sixth seed Salesian and No. 10 seed San Ramon Valley.
The CIF could have disqualified Riordan entirely from the playoffs, but instead is allowing the Crusaders to continue playing — albeit with some players suspended. The statement said they are still working to determine which players would be suspended.
Riordan coach Joe Curtin, in an interview with the Bay Area News Group on Friday afternoon, said he knows which players will be available but was told not to say publicly.
“We won’t have a full squad, that’s for sure,” Curtin said. “We’ll be short-handed, but we’ll give it our best shot, man. It’s a shame that it’s come to this, but we have to handle it.”
The decision comes less than 24 hours after the highly intense and emotional game turned physical late. Riordan was beating InderkumSacramento 61-52 with 1:15 remaining on the clock when Inderkum committed a hard foul on Riordan sophomore Jasir Rencher. Some of Rencher’s teammates didn’t like it and a hard shove from a Riordan player set things into motion.