The story broke from a tweet by Carlos Alfaro Rodriguez (@carlosalfarorod) who was there covering the match for the Montgomery County Sentinel. Carlos had been live tweeting the UPSL National Quarterfinal between World Class Premier vs. Mass United FC when he posted this: “Update: the referee was punched in the face. It looks like the game is over.” Not a phrase read too often about a soccer match, but for a league that has had some crazy finishes, this was easily the craziest.

The match took place at Montgomery Blair High School, in Silver Spring, Maryland, this afternoon. The scoring in the first half began with Marco Martinez scoring for Mass United FC in the 34th minute. In the 37th minute, Olakunle Banjo equalized by scoring a penalty for World Class Premier after a yellow card for MUFC’s Reda Mokhtari. With the teams knotted up, it looked like the half would end and the clubs would regroup and ready for another 45. According to Evan Raimist, the PR/Communications Director for World Class Premier, this is when things got wild.

“At the stroke of halftime, the ref blew the whistle for halftime and look like one of their players got mad that the ref stopped what he viewed as a counter attack. The ref issued him a yellow (his second). A member of their bench (staff, not player) ran onto the field and then bumped into/punched the ref in the face as the other players were yelling.” With chaos breaking out on the field, the match was called and the police were called to sort out what happened. “The league made the ultimate decision to call the game and have Mass United forfeit. The ref crew called the police who responded, but the decision was left up to the UPSL and they decided a Mass United forfeit was warranted.”

The “member of the bench” mentioned by Raimist was apparently a parent of one of the MUFC players. According to a source with Mass United, it was “a parent of one of the players after a straight red card at the end of the first half.” Everything was still fluid when the clubs were contacted, and whether it was a second yellow or a straight red, that doesn’t really change the result.

For their parts, neither club is happy with the resulting forfeit for MUFC. A spokesperson for MUFC - “All of the players and head coach are extremely disappointed after sacrifices they have all made all year and an inexcusable incident destroyed a very competitive match…We cannot accept poor behavior by anyone that is on the sidelines. Much disappointment for sure for everyone involved. We apologize to all those involved.”

While WCP is thrilled with advancing, Raimist expressed disappointment in the way things ended. “We are happy that we get to go through, but definitely would have rather the players decide the match on the field. It was shaping up to be a good game and the 2nd half looked like it would be some exciting soccer. It’s disappointing the players didn’t get to decide the outcome, but we are looking forward to continuing to work hard and keep this season going.”

World Class Premier celebrate a well-deserved win. (image courtesy of WCP social media)

A league affiliated twitter account responded on social media, “Charges will be pressed we protect our referees across the country.” Whether this is the “official response” of the league, that can’t be verified. Our contact with the UPSL was reach out to, but so far no response has been received. If the league contacts us, we’ll their response to the story.

For the record, we also reached out to the author of the original tweet, to get his perspective, but haven’t heard back. His tweet reflects the importance of citizens/reporters willing to post to their social media about matches not being covered by most media outlets. We appreciate all of you out there and especially Carlos today. Keep up the great work.

End result, World Class Premier advance in the UPSL playoffs and continue a run of dominant play. Mass United’s run ends, but a club shouldn’t be judged by the unhinged actions of a single person.

- Dan Vaughn