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Soccer fight offers opposing perspectives

By Brad Norman | Statesville R&L

Published: September 6, 2009

Days after an emotional boys soccer game, South Iredell and West Iredell players have different accounts of what happened after the final whistle blew.

The game ended with a 2-1 West Iredell victory, but there was an altercation on the field afterward.
South Iredell's Clay Brown threw a punch at West Iredell's Moises Garay, but said it was only after he was provoked. The incident occurred after the teams went through the handshake line.

"When you walk through the line and give handshakes after the game, he slapped me on the chest," Brown said during an interview earlier this week. "He didn't give me a handshake. He did slap me on the chest first."

Garay offered a different view, saying Brown was the aggressor.

"As soon as the game ended, he hit me in the chest in an unsportly manner and said 'Good game,' " Garay said during a separate interview. "When we went through the handshake line, he did the same thing to me. I did it back to him after he did it first."

Garay also said Brown connected with a punch, right around the eyebrow area.

"That's when everybody was pushing the teams away and separating us," Garay said.

Brown and Garay also had a prior incident in which both chased a loose ball out of bounds.
Garay scooped up the ball in front of Brown. Brown picked up a different ball and threw it at Garay. Garay responded by throwing the ball in his hand back at Brown.

Brown was given a yellow card on the play while Garay was warned.

"It was our ball," Brown said. "He was getting the ball from me when it was our ball. He took it from me."

The two teams are not conference opponents and will not play again until next year.

"It was a very unfortunate incident, and certainly not what we want to teach our kids," Iredell-Statesville Schools athletic director David Rothwell said. "We try to teach sportsmanship first. I have every confidence in two outstanding athletic directors who investigated the situation thoroughly ... and by two outstanding principals, who followed up behind the ADs. I talked to both those principals (Friday), and as far as they are concerned, they have brought closure to their schools. We regret it happened, but we're going to put it behind us now and move forward."