FOOTBALL-GAME FIGHT ESCALATES INTO MELEE; POLICE CALLED TO CLIFTON STADIUM

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, November 18, 1990

The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | Page A03

A dispute between a Bloomfield coach and a Clifton football player boiled over Saturday into a melee between players at a game between the freshman teams from the two communities high schools, according to witnesses.

Details of what occurred at the Clifton High School stadium were sketchy, but witnesses said the players scuffled after the traditional postgame handshake.

Pete Colesano, a Clifton Board of Education member who attended the game, said the melee lasted about 15 minutes and that police were called to help restore order. Colesano said a coach for the Bloomfield team attempted to assault a Clifton player and the scuffle followed.

Chet Parlavecchio, varsity coach at Bloomfield High, said there had been an “incident,” but denied that the Bloomfield coach tried to assault a Clifton player.

Parlavecchio, who was not at the game, refused to identify the coach allegedly involved, but said the coach was consulting a referee, not intending to assault a player, when he left his bench.

“If a coach of mine went after their player, there is no excuse for that and he would be dismissed right away,” Parlavecchio said. “We were on their 10-yard line, ready to score. It was a good football game. They are undefeated and we were ready to pull an upset and all this happened.”

Gerald Robinson, 16, the Clifton player who reportedly was the target of the Bloomfield coach’s anger, traced the dispute to a play late in the fourth quarter.

Robinson said that after the game, players were beginning to shake hands when the Bloomfield coach started running after him. “One of my teammates said, `Gerald, look out. I turned around,” Robinson said. “There was a big riot on the field. Everybody was fighting.”

Robinson was uninjured, but Bobby Capo, 14, a teammate who intervened, was struck on the helmet by the Bloomfield coach, according to Capo’s father, Kenneth.

Clifton High School Principal Robert Mooney and police Sgt. John Zipf both described the incident as minor. There were no serious injuries and no one was arrested.

Clifton won the game, 26-14. The varsities of the two schools are scheduled to play in Clifton on Thanksgiving Day.

ID: 17323872 | Copyright © 1990, The Record (New Jersey)