By Rich Rhoades

BROOKVILLE –What was a record-breaking game at Brookville Area High School last Friday, turned into a rare occasion of reversing a result.

Participation of an ineligible player in the season-opening varsity football game forced the Brookville Raiders to forfeit their victory, the school district announced Wednesday.

Brookville superintendent Sandy Craft indicated that it was brought to her attention following the 54-34 win at home against Union.

“The incident was in regards to an ineligible player, who played a small part of the game,” Craft said in a statement to the media. “We contacted the PIAA concerning the matter, which was the ethical thing to do and it really needed to be stated that we had an ineligible player on the field.”

The unnamed player got in for at least seven plays late in the fourth quarter. As it turned out, he was declared academically ineligible due to a new school policy that takes into account the previous spring semester, carrying over the final nine-week grades to the new school year in the fall.

The standard practice is all coaches getting an ineligible player list on a weekly basis through the school year. Ineligible players also get a letter sent to their home address.

While the player was on the list, it wasn’t noticed until it was too late.

“An honest mistake,” Craft told the DuBois Courier-Express.

Brookville’s honesty was appreciated by PIAA’s District 9 Committee, which oversees the governing of high school sports in this region.

District 9 Chairman Jim Manners of Brockway said that the matter is black and white in the PIAA by-laws, citing Article 8, Section 3.

“If a player or coach participates, and he or she isn’t eligible, you forfeit. There are no loopholes,” Manners said, paraphrasing the rule. “The responsibility lies with the student, coach and the principal.”

Manners said that the District 9 Committee has the power to make the penalty stronger, but Brookville’s action makes that option moot.

“Since they did the right thing, that won’t happen,” he said.

Manners did indicate that, as the Committee does in similar cases, Brookville will probably be asked to put in writing a plan to prevent the same thing from happening again.

For head coach Chris Dworek, who started his 14th season with the Raiders this fall, it was a natural reaction.

“Right now, I’m very upset at myself, because in 14 years it’s never happened,” he told the Courier Wednesday night. “I’ve done a diligent job to make sure this doesn’t happen. You take grades seriously. The fact I messed up and did this to my players is what upsets me the most. There are reasons and excuses why I didn’t have all my mental capabilities there before the game, but it doesn’t matter.”

His team found out about the forfeit decision Tuesday night before practice and Dworek said his team has responded well.

“We can spin anything in a positive way and obviously the tougher the situation, the harder it is to find the positives, but that’s what we talked about,” he said. “(Wednesday) was a great practice …  Success is how high you bounce after you fall and they get what that means.”

Last week’s win was a team record for total points in a game, breaking the previous high of 76 points scored in a 55-21 loss at Meadville in 1998. The Raiders’ 54 points scored was the second most ever scored behind their 57 points put up on Clarion-Limestone in a 57-0 win in 2007. Now those marks are voided.

What Brookville can do about the setback remains to be seen. Realistically, the Raiders are competing with four other teams — Brockway, Karns City, Moniteau and Kane — for four playoff spots in the Class AA playoffs. A loss, especially a forfeited one, could prove to be costly.

On the other hand, Brookville’s loss could be Union’s good fortune, considering that three wins made the eight-team Class A playoffs a year ago. Keystone, which beat Union in overtime, qualified with a 3-6 record and Union finished 2-7.

It’s believed to be only the second time that Brookville has forfeited a football game, the first time way back in 1978 due to a teacher’s strike that caused the Raiders to lose their season-opening game at Keystone. They went on to finish 4-5 that year in the Little 12 Conference.

On three other occasions, the Raiders benefited by a forfeit. In 1979 and 2006, the Raiders won games over Clarion-Limestone via forfeits because of the lack of players. And in the 1989 season-opener, the Raiders received a win because of a teacher’s strike, coincidently, at Union.

The last forfeit in District 9 occurred in Week 9 last season when A-C Valley forfeited to Karns City prior to the game.