Officials take unprecedented step after missed call decides playoff game dubbed "Extra Point Gate"

A fascinating situation unfolded during a California playoff game recently that led to some unprecedented actions - in both the best and worst sense of the phrase.

In the game between Torres HS and Shafter HS, the two teams battled into overtime when Torres lined up for a PAT attempt down 42-41.

After a high snap, the Torres holder scrambled, making a few defenders miss before throwing a strike in the end zone to a wide open Torres player wearing #3. 

Torres was awarded two points, and won the game in dramatic fashion, punching their ticket to the state title game in just their third year of playing varsity football.

As officials normally do in that case, the crew hurried off the field while Torres celebrated, however the play should not have counted.

The receiver on that broken PAT try was actually the long snapper, and since Torres was in a tradition formation, it made him an ineligible receiver (despite the fact that he had drifted downfield into the end zone). The resulting penalty should have been a loss of down, and game over.

Inexplicably, the officials were unaware that #3 had started the play as the snapper, and it wasn't until game administration tracked them down in the officials locker room that it was brought to their attention.

Credit to the crew officiating the game, they penned a letter (shared via @Pagmeter) taking ownership of the mistake, and adding "Because we missed the call, we are willing to speak to whomever is necessary to make the correction."

How many times have we seen a similar situation unfold on Saturday's, where a controversial call all but hands a team a win, and the officials are nowhere to be found to answer for that critical call? The crew deserves credit for admitting they made a mistake.

CIF officials and school administration from both Torres and Shafter met over the weekend to see if what they were going to do to move the situation forward.

Surely if there was a result that could be overturned by a governing body, it would be this one, right? I mean there's video evidence, PLUS admission of a missed call by the officiating crew and a willingness of the parties involved to meet and try to make things right.

At that meeting, according to ABC 23, Torres officials were asked their position on the end of the game, and their district athletic director shared that the officials called the game to the best of their ability and didn't catch it, and added that everyone is a beneficiary, and sometimes a loser of those calls and that the result should stand. 

The following statement from CIF Central Section officials was shared with local outlet ABC 23

"After reviewing the information presented and speaking with all the parties involved, the result of Friday's game between Matilda Torres High School and Shafter High School stands as was called on the field."

Shafter head coach Jerald Pierucci, whose team was on the losing end of the controversy that saw their season end, shared in a local interview that CIF officials were afraid of Pandora's Box being opened if they were to overturn the result of the game, as everyone would want to protest results if they were to do it in this particular case.

To that argument, Pierucci simply shared, "To me, if opening Pandora's Box means doing the right thing, then Pandora's Box should be opened. That's what governing bodies are supposed to do."

See video of the overtime play unfold in the clip.