Another Ugly Incident Causes High School Game to be Called Early

North Carolina high school football game halted early after player strikes referee

A Big 12 referee calls a penalty against Oregon State during a non-conference football game, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, at Jones AT&T Stadium. / Nathan Giese/Avalanche-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The high school football season is still young, but we have already experienced a great deal of wrong endings to games.

From cancellations due to player safety concerns to ugly brawls between teams, to the use of ineligible players, the past few weeks have featured anything and everything taking place outside of just good, old-fashioned high school football.

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That continued this past week in North Carolina when a contest was called with just over two minutes to play due to an incident involving a player from Greensboro Smith High School and the referee crew.

According to a report by High Point Enterprise, a student-athlete from Greensboro Smith struck the head referee with a punch after a late-game fourth-down play. 

Greensboro Smith was attempting to put together a rally to take the lead on T.W. Andrews when they came up short on fourth-and-2. After a measurement was conducted, play was set to begin again when the incident occurred.

The player involved in the attack was eventually restrained and carried away to his sideline by a teammate. Things did not stop there, though, as players from Greensboro and fans started to head towards the T.W. Andrews sideline.

T.W. Andrews Coach 'Proud of my Guys' Following Ugly Incident

“That was unacceptable, unacceptable,” T.W. Andrews head coach Mook Reynolds told the newspaper. “I am proud of my guys. We want to put them in frustrating situations when we work out and practice so they learn what maturity is and execute through adversity.

“We never want to do anything like what happened. I’m proud of my guys. Hats off to them for the level of discipline that we coach and play and expect out of our kids.”

Following the last incident involving more players and fans, the game was called and spectators were asked to vacate the premises immediately.

With the win, T.C. Andrews moved to 4-0 on the season and will now take on Randleman this coming Friday in league action.