An ugly sideline fight broke out with just over thirty seconds to go between the Imani Christian Academy Saints and the Steel Valley Ironmen on Friday night.
Trailing 16-7 in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter, Imani looked to make it interesting with a late scoring drive. Steel Valley tackled the Saints’ ballcarrier out of bounds, and Imani players took issue with the hit.
With less than a minute to go, the referees didn’t announce any personal foul penalties or ejections for the instigators, instead allowing the clock to run out.
Video footage of the altercation shows Steel Valley linebacker Carlos Scott body slamming an Imani player to the ground, but it’s unclear what, if anything, happened to spur that. With Scott on the ground following the takedown, a scrum of Saints began to throw punches at him.
The fight occurred along the fence enclosing the sideline, with members of the crowd getting up close and shouting as the brawl continued.
LaRoi Johnson Speaks Out
Speaking to his team after the game, Imani head coach LaRoi Johnson said that once he gets a chance to review the video of what happened, those who instigated the fight will receive season-long suspensions. They could also risk expulsion from the private school.
Further discipline could come from the WPIAL or the PIAA. Pittsburgh Sports Now reached out for a statement, but haven’t heard back yet.
Imani linebacker Dayshaun Burnett, a four-star recruit and Top 300 player in the class of 2025, was visibly frustrated following the fight, calling out those involved in the postgame huddle. In an interview afterwards, Burnett said the altercation left him at a loss for words.
“I’m trying to think of how I could word this. Just, it was a tough loss,” Burnett said. “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
How you expelled from your house taking fake classes from a laptop ?? What a joke !!
How do you get suspended from a non existent school ? They take classes on a laptop … Laroi Johnson isn’t suspending anyone he will make sure the film is edited they control the narrative … just like you do by approving comments on your page ..
Your reporting is misleading Imani Didn’t just take exception to the SV player on their sideline one of their players had him on the ground punching the heck out of him that is why Scott flipped one of their players over who by the way landed on top of him
That’s why I left it open ended. “It’s unclear what, if anything, happened to spur [the body slam].” Going by what I saw off the video, not word of mouth.
SV didnt tackle a player out of bounds! The Imani player was blocking the SV player out of bounds and eventually twirled him around and threw him on the ground by the fence! After the Imani players surrounded the SV player on the ground, thats when SV #4 came in to try to get his teammate and thats when everything went wild! That footage doesn’t show what started the fight!