Two Jay High School football players who appear to have deliberately tackled a referee during a game Friday night have been suspended from school as well as the team, officials said Sunday.

Northside Independent School District is investigating the circumstances on the field just before the referee was hit during Jay’s game at Marble Falls, including reports of derogatory racial comments that may have been made toward members of the Jay team.

The two players, whose names have not been released, are suspended indefinitely, pending results of the investigation.

In a video that has been seen across the country via social media, Jay player No. 12 is seen taking a running start and barreling into the referee from behind at midfield. The second player, No. 81, who comes running in from another corner of the field, hits the referee after he’s down. While the team roster lists names for those numbers, players often change numbers during the season, and there was no immediate confirmation of the players’ names.

The referee has not been identified. The hits occurred in the last minute of what appears to have been an emotionally charged game, which Marble Falls won, 15-9.

The two players were promptly ejected, and the head of the Austin Football Officials Association told the Associated Press that the ref was very upset and wants to press charges against the players.

“The first thing we want is that those two kids never play football again,” said Wayne Elliott, executive secretary of the officials association.

On Sunday, Elliott declined to make any further comment or give any details about the referee’s condition. He would not name the referee.

School district officials showed their concern in a statement released Sunday morning.

“This is disturbing,” Northside spokesman Pascual Gonzalez said. “It is not the sportsmanlike behavior that we teach our students. We are cooperating fully with the University Interscholastic League with this investigation.”

On Saturday, Northside ISD athletic director Stan Laing called the video “very disturbing.”

Before the referee was tackled, two other Jay players had been ejected from the game, including senior Moses Reynolds, who plays quarterback and wide receiver. The team’s star player, Reynolds was ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct during the fourth quarter, according to sources who were at the game. Reynolds has scholarship offers from several schools, including Baylor, Texas A&M and TCU. He’s the younger brother of Texas A&M junior wide receiver Josh Reynolds. Information about the other ejected player, who was thrown out in the third quarter, was unavailable Sunday.

In a statement issued Sunday by the UIL, the governing body for the state’s public school extra-curricular activities, said the league is “extremely concerned about the actions portrayed.”

Marble Falls coach Matt Green said what the two Jay players did to the referee was dangerous and something a coach would never condone.

Jay coach Gary Gutierrez apologized for his players’ actions after the game, according to Green.

“I think it’s unfair to judge the entire Jay football team based on what a couple of people did,” Green said, “but with that being said, there was some exceptionally bad behavior from a select few players.”

Gutierrez could not be reached Sunday.

Jay, which plays in the largest UIL classification, went 3-6 last season and had only one victory in District 27-6A play.

bbaby@express-news.net