A few minutes before his team's game was set to kickoff Friday night, Colts Neck High School football coach Darian Barnes said the game's head referee approached him on the sideline. Players from the opposing Monroe High team might kneel for the national anthem, the referee told him, and it could delay the game's start.

Minutes later, it happened: Roughly three players from Monroe knelt for the anthem, prompting two officials — Ernie Lunardelli, 54, and his son, Anthony Lunardelli, 27 — to walk off the field and leave the game in protest.

Before the Lunardellis left, Ernie Lunardelli turned to the Monroe players and shouted in their direction, Barnes said. The coach added “the other official had to pull [Lunardelli] off the field.”

“To me, he’s a coward,” Barnes said. “You don’t stand there and scream at a bunch of 16- and 17-year-olds who are just expressing their rights the same as he was expressing his.

“He’s a grown man. After you tell the other adults what you are going to do, you don’t turn around and scream at kids. That’s what needs to be addressed.”

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Friday's protests at the game in Middlesex County sparked an internet firestorm and reignited the debate over athletes kneeling for the anthem — a movement that began last season with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and spread across most levels of sports. This year, dozens of NFL players have knelt, prompting public rebukes from President Donald Trump. High school athletes, such as the ones from Monroe, also have joined the movement, which often is meant to shine light on racial and social injustices and police brutality.

Barnes, 37, has a unique perspective on what's happening around the nation. A graduate of Toms River North High, he went on to play seven seasons in the NFL, earning a Super Bowl ring with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He also is a black man married to a white woman, and the couple has three mixed race children. He lives in ethnically diverse Rahway, and coaches and teaches in predominantly white Colts Neck.

“He has as much right to walk out as the kids have to kneel,” Barnes said. “It wasn’t difficult to watch those kids kneel and it wasn’t difficult to watch him leave the game because of it. His anger was difficult. His anger, the way he yelled, the look on his face — it bothered the hell out of me.

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“I don’t know if it’s a microcosm of what is going on around this country, but he just shouldn’t have been that angry at those kids over it. It’s his right to be angry, but the way he went about it, it’s kind of sickening.”

Ernie Lunardelli said Sunday morning he did not yell at any players and that he only stopped on his way off the field after a coach from Monroe yelled at him.

"One of the coaches said something and it kind of irked me and I just turned around and I was looking to see who it was," Lunardelli said. "Nobody pulled me; I walked off."

Barnes said he was told before the game by the head referee that the crew had asked the Monroe players who might kneel to stay in the locker room for the anthem to avoid any problems.

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“What bothers me really is that you asked these kids to stay in the locker room during the national anthem so you don’t have to see these kids kneel,” Barnes said. “Why wouldn’t you just not go [and officiate the game]? I mean, not for nothing, it’s their high school, they go to school there.

Barnes said he had no problem with the Monroe players kneeling or the Lunardellis decision to leave the game. But he wishes the two sides would have tried to develop an understanding for the other’s point of view.

“If I can listen to you about why it’s important to stand, then you can listen to me about why it’s so important that we fix the racial injustice, police brutality, gender inequality,” Barnes said. “The problem is that I don’t think people are willing to have the conversation because they’re afraid of where the conversation may go. We’re not afraid to say there’s a race problem, but we’re afraid to fix it because that means both sides have to come to the table and say, ‘Where can we find some common ground and make this work for everybody?’”

After Ernie Lunardelli and his son left Friday night, they were replaced by two cadets who were already assigned to work on the chain crew for the game. Lunardelli alleged Saturday the game is not official because the cadets did not have proper certification or training.

Colts Neck went on to defeat Monroe, 18-13.

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Lunardelli blasted the Monroe players for kneeling, telling NJ Advance Media that he’s “not in favor of anyone disrespecting our country, our flag, the armed forces.” He also said that weeks ago he informed the officials assigner for the Greater Middlesex Conference, Thomas Paulikas, that he would walk off the field if any players knelt for the anthem before his games.

Anthony Lunardelli played football at Monroe High, graduating in 2008. He often works games as an official with his father, Ernie Lunardelli said. Both Lunardellis were unassigned from working Saturday's game between Spotswood and Raritan, according to Ernie Lunardelli.

Paulikas declined comment when reached by phone Saturday.

Monroe athletic director Greg Beyer also declined comment Saturday, and Monroe football coach Dan Lee did not return phone messages inquiring about the incident.

Lunardelli said one of his issues with the Monroe players is “they have no clue why they’re kneeling. I think they’re just doing it for the hell of it.”

Lunardelli also said he does not know specifically why the players knelt.

“You don’t know why they’re kneeling and that’s the problem,” Barnes said. “The same people who are so adamant, like this guy, who is so adamant about expressing how upset and frustrated he is by it, is the same guy that doesn’t want to see why the kid is kneeling in the first place.

“He’s not kneeling because he wants to disrespect the flag,” Barnes continued. “He’s kneeling because there’s racial and social injustices that time and time again are happening. I just wish those people would see both sides.”

NJ Advance Media staff writer Joe Zedalis contributed to this report.

Matthew Stanmyre may be reached at mstanmyre@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattStanmyre. Find NJ.com on Facebook.