Players fight, so title game called off

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – A bathroom fight Friday among football players from Winston- Salem State and Virginia State during a CIAA championship game luncheon left the WSSU quarterback beaten and charges filed against a Virginia State player.

The conference announced that the title game set for today in Winston-Salem has been canceled.

Rudy Johnson, the starting quarterback for the Rams, was “viciously beaten” by members of the Virginia State team, Winston-Salem State Chancellor Donald Reaves said in a statement. He said one Virginia State player admitted his role in the beating.

School spokeswoman Nancy Young identified the suspect as 22-year-old Lamont Daniel Britt. A Forsyth County jail official says Britt, a running back from Portsmouth, Va., was being held there Friday night on a charge of misdemeanor assault inflicting serious injury.

“There is no excuse for the behavior of the Virginia State players,” Reaves said.

Young said Johnson was assaulted in the bathroom at the Anderson Conference Center on the Winston-Salem campus during the luncheon.

Virginia State athletic director Peggy Davis didn’t return a phone call seeking comment, but the school issued a statement on its website saying it is fully cooperating with the CIAA in its investigation and couldn’t comment.

Both NCAA Division II schools are 9-1.