With 1:18 left to go in the varsity girls’ game between Goshen and Reeltown Friday in Goshen, the Eagles led 59-36.

However, the final 1:18 never ran off the clock.

A shoving match between an Eagle player and a Rebel player quickly escalated into a full-blown bench-clearing brawl.

“This was an area game where the winner would have the upper hand as far as hosting the area championship,” said GHS head coach Sam Dean. “Tempers just flared and things got out of hand.”

The fracas saw 14 players ejected, many people run from the stands onto the court and the game suspended prior to its official completion.

“We had to stop the game there,” Dean said. “As I understand it, it was a forfeit on their part.”

Five Goshen players and nine Reeltown players were ejected as a result of the brawl.

Tiffany Fuller, Briana Cowart, Qvarmeshia Haynes, Alexis Silver and Linzey Price were the ejected Goshen players, while Joana Rubio, Torsiea Brady, Latorria Smith, Chelsi Hand, Maya O’Neal, Kia Smith, LaRaven Brooks, Danielle Henderson and Markeisha Washington were all ejected for Reeltown.

As far as potential suspensions are concerned, Dean said the school will handle the issue.

“We’ll figure it out,” Dean said. “We will take whatever action we need to to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Goshen led 59-36 when the game was called off, and had been in control of the game throughout its entirety.

Goshen took an 11-10 lead midway through the first quarter, and did not trail again.

Ivia Pollard led Goshen with 14 points, while Niyoka Slater scored 10.

Goshen’s varsity boys were also in action Friday, albeit with far less controversy surrounding the game.

The Eagles fell to the Rebels 62-53.

Goshen trailed by 15 at one point in the fourth quarter, but rallied to cut the lead to three at 53-50 with one minute left in the game.

Unfortunately for Goshen, the Eagles were forced to foul to extend the game. Reeltown scored the game’s next nine points, with seven of those points coming from the charity stripe.

Marcus Coleman hit a 3-pointer for Goshen as time expired to provide the final score.

Reginald Foster led Goshen with 16 points and 21 rebounds, while Coleman added 14. Reeltown’s Shaquille Roberson scored 12 points, but provided the Rebels with an intimidating inside presence defensively. “Roberson’s a big kid,” head coach Jonathan Deveridge said. “We knew coming in he was going to get a lot of blocks. We placed an emphasis on pump faking this week in practice so we could try and get him in foul trouble.”

Despite the tough loss, Deveridge was encouraged by his teams’ performance.

“This was probably our best offensive output all season,” Deveridge said. “We hit several threes, more than we’ve probably hit the rest of the season combined. We were just finally taking advantage of open shots. I tell the guys all the time that I know we can shoot the ball well. After tonight, hopefully we can have confidence and we can start to believe in our offensive abilities.”

The win for Reeltown gave it a clean sweep of the Eagles, as the Rebels also won the junior varsity boys’ game 53-33.