5 Yard Facemask Penalty?

[zvargphoto]

Alright ya'll, found this one a little strange while doing photos at Westlake Academy vs Hill County Wolves tonight.

Flag is thrown after what appeared to be a facemask. The ref then calls it a "non personal foul facemask" and gives Hill County 5 yards and instead of repeating the down it was an automatic first down.

I am really confused by this. Can someone help explain?

 

[Legacy Zebra]

Yeah, that’s just incorrect. There hasn’t been a 5 yard face mask in at least 15 years. And when there was, it wasn’t an automatic first down. They may have confused it with the NFL’s hands to the face which would be 5 yards and an automatic first down if the foul was on the defense. But in TX HS, that would be a personal foul, 15 yards with an automatic first down.

 

[zvargphoto]

Yeah, that’s just incorrect. There hasn’t been a 5 yard face mask in at least 15 years. And when there was, it wasn’t an automatic first down. They may have confused it with the NFL’s hands to the face which would be 5 yards and an automatic first down if the foul was on the defense. But in TX HS, that would be a personal foul, 15 yards with an automatic first down.

Thank you, pretty wacky situation.

 

[ZeroRisk]

It's been a long time since the 5-yard facemask existed in TXHSFB. There is either the full PF 15-yarder or nothing.

 

[dammitbobby]

The 5-yard face mask foul is still a thing in the NFHS ruleset (alongside the 15 yard one). Most likely, the official was a transplant from another state and just had a brain fart... in any case, though, the rest of the crew should have caught the error.

 

[HillCountyWolvesFootball]

It was the same referee we had last year when we played them. It was a definite facemask and I was surprised they said 5 yards.