Prep Players Facing Larger Penalty : High School Football: The circumstances behind the Palmdale-Saugus game remain clouded by conflicting reports.

Palmdale High had been flagged for a third consecutive personal foul, but before back judge Brad Woolley could pick up the football and pace off another 15 yards, senior defensive back Darius Wilson of Palmdale charged him from behind.

“I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!’ ” Woolley says he heard over his shoulder. Suddenly, he was on the ground and the 6-foot-2, 175-pound Wilson was punching him in the back and head.

Pandemonium followed at the high school football game between Palmdale and Saugus on Oct. 13 at College of the Canyons in Valencia. Palmdale players swarmed onto the field. Another official was felled. No fewer than six L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the scene, and officials suspended the Golden League game with 7:40 left in the fourth quarter of a scoreless tie.

Before the stadium had cleared, 18-year-old Darius Wilson was in handcuffs--and serious trouble.

Wilson awaits arraignment Nov. 14 in Newhall Municipal Court on charges of misdemeanor battery. So do teammates Mike Warren, 18, who also allegedly struck an official, and Keith Bennett, 16.

At a meeting of the Antelope Valley Union High School District board of trustees Wednesday night in Palmdale, Warren was expelled for the rest of the fall semester. However, that decision was suspended and he will be able to finish the semester under an independent study program at home and return to school for the spring semester.

Bennett was expelled for the remainder of the school year, but can participate in a home study program for the spring semester and return to school next fall.

Action in the Wilson case was postponed until the next board meeting, Nov. 15.

Woolley, 32, and referee Mike Davis, also 32, suffered only minor injuries in the attack, but the players, if convicted, face maximum penalties of six months in jail and $2,000 fines, according to the Newhall district attorney’s office.

The attack stunned school administrators, other coaches and high school athletics officials, who claimed that the incident was unique in recent history.

“In the 10 years I’ve been here, I can’t remember anything like this happening,” said Bill Clark, a Southern Section administrator in charge of football.

School officials were further embarrassed by the media attention and subsequent stories reporting that Palmdale’s black players were targets of racist taunts by Saugus players, and that Palmdale coaches lost control of their players. About half of the players on Palmdale’s team are black. Saugus has two black players.

In the week after the attack, league officials awarded Saugus a 2-0 victory by forfeit and listed sanctions against Palmdale, including two years’ probation. Palmdale Principal Linda Janzen accepted the punishment but said she will lodge a complaint with the Southern Section office about the alleged racist remarks.

Clark, of the Southern Section office, said that he is aware of those allegations but declined to speculate on their validity or on how Southern Section officials would handle the matter if the accusations prove to be true.

Wilson and Warren have declined comment, but Palmdale charges that the racist taunts came not only from Saugus players, but from game officials as well. Both officials are white. Woolley, who said that he may file a civil suit against Wilson, vehemently denied the accusations.

“No remarks were made,” Woolley said. “And if they were--and if the coaches were doing their jobs--they would have brought it to our attention immediately. Those accusations are unwarranted and just a blast of smoke.”

Palmdale Coach Kent Bothwell said that the alleged remarks were brought to his attention by his players during the game.

“At the time, I didn’t think much of it,” Bothwell said. “I was just involved in trying to win the game.”

Tom Mendoza, a photographer who covered the game from the sidelines for the Newhall Signal, said that he heard a Saugus player utter racial obscenities early in the game, but heard no remarks by officials.

“He said it really loud,” Mendoza said. “He didn’t say it to himself. The coaches told him to sit down and shut up. I remember saying something to the official, but he didn’t hear it and he went about his business of running the game.”

Saugus players have denied the accusations. “I was on the field going both ways,” said John Lin, a fullback and linebacker for Saugus. “And I didn’t hear any racial names going at anybody.”

However, Saugus Coach Dick Flaherty conceded that one player might have made a remark.

“I heard that somebody had made a derogatory comment--I’m not sure if a racial word was in there--but I understand a couple of players jumped at him and told him to keep his mouth shut,” Flaherty said. “Had I heard it, I would have benched him, whether he was a starter or not. We talk about other teams as players. We don’t talk about color or ethnic background. But there are certain things you can’t control and things you hope that other people control. That behavior is unacceptable.”

Saugus Principal Mike von Buelow, who presumed that Wilson and Warren were among the players charging racism, claimed that Palmdale players exaggerated the accusations to excuse the attacks. Wilson has a black father and a white mother. Warren is white.

“If there were any kind of racial slurring going on, there would have been more evidence of it,” von Buelow said. “You would have had one player going after another after the play. That’s not to say that anything wasn’t said, but I don’t think it was a theme of the game.”

The game was a heated contest long before Wilson attacked Woolley after a Saugus punt. Earlier in the evening, after Palmdale’s sophomore team defeated Saugus, several Palmdale players had stood in front of the Saugus grandstand, raised their helmets and flaunted their victory.

Later, a Palmdale student reportedly dropped his pants in front of the Saugus cheerleaders. During halftime, another Palmdale spectator ran through the paper banner Saugus’ cheerleaders had prepared for the Centurions’ return to the field. Witnesses also described Palmdale’s sideline behavior as unruly.

In the first half, both coaches approached officials, requesting that the hard-hitting game be more tightly controlled. Palmdale was penalized eight times--five times for personal fouls--for 100 yards. Saugus was penalized 54 yards.

Before the start of the second half, Woolley said, both teams were cautioned against unnecessary roughness and unsportsmanlike conduct.

“We said, ‘We’re going to behave like gentlemen and not let any of this take away from our game,’ ” Woolley said. “The third quarter was fine, there were no incidents.”

Wilson and Warren have been described as model students with good grades in academics and citizenship. Wilson, however, was suspended from school for a month last year for his involvement in an on-campus fight.

BACKGROUND Feelings were running high when Palmdale and Saugus played a high school football game Oct. 13 and they erupted in the fourth quarter, when a Palmdale player attacked one of the officials. Pandemonium followed and now, amid allegations of racial taunting, two players face battery charges.