West Vancouver police were called to arrest an unruly parent after a dispute on the soccer pitch Saturday escalated to an assault on the sidelines.

West Vancouver Football Club’s U21 team was in a semi-final match with Surrey’s BC Tigers at Ambleside’s artificial turf fields when the incident happened.

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“Apparently, a parent picked up the ball and a player felt the parent was holding the ball to try and help run the clock on the game,” said Const. Jeff Palmer, West Vancouver police spokesman. “Obviously people were feeling that the game was important on some level.”

The verbal argument between the player and the parent escalated and other parents gathered around to join in, Palmer said. Eventually “a punch was thrown,” and a 45-year-old North Vancouver woman was hit in the jaw.

When police arrived, they found a group of parents crowded around the suspect’s SUV and sitting on the hood to prevent him from leaving.

After taking several witness statements, the 42-year-old Surrey man was taken away in handcuffs.

“Perhaps not surprisingly, a number of the statements are at odds with each other in terms of interpretation of the events,” Palmer said, adding further work is needed “just to get as full and balanced interpretation of the circumstances as possible.”

It’s possible the punch was intended for someone else and the contact with the woman was accidental, Palmer said.

Anyone with pictures or video of the melee is asked to contact West Vancouver police, Palmer added.

The suspect, whose name is not being released, was later released on a promise to appear in court in April. Palmer said police will be requesting the Crown lay one charge of assault.

Palmer had some words for spectators on the sidelines. “Of all of the serious concerns that we need to address in the world today, we’d really hope we could have youth sports that don’t include this kind of conflict,” he said.

North Shore News requested comment from the BC Tigers and the Vancouver Metro Soccer League but none responded by press time.

After North Shore News’ deadline, West Vancouver Football Club president Ruth Burr said she was grateful to the West Vancouver police for showing up so promptly and to the Surrey parents who were trying to de-escalate the situation.

“It’s really unfortunate,” Burr said.