Foul play: The rules of engagement

The physical nature of boys lacrosse is one of the many reasons why those who try it once tend to return for more. Although body checking of an opponent from the front or side above the waist, but below the neck, is totally legal, there are plenty of situations that will arise where rules are broken.

Body checking is only permitted on an opponent who possesses the ball or is within 5 yards of a loose ball or one that is in flight and still within 5 yards of the checked player.

The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) lists 43 lacrosse signs for officials. While the novice player and fan, and even newer officials for that matter, may not recognize each one, a good starting point is to understand there are two types of fouls: personals and technical.

If you're familiar with basketball you're probably thinking that technical fouls are more serious. That's not the case in lacrosse. These fouls are of a far less serious nature than personal fouls.

The penalty for a technical foul is a 30-second suspension of the player who committed the foul when the team fouled has possession of the ball or awarding the ball to the fouled team if the victimized squad did not have possession.

Examples of technical fouls include goalkeeper interference, holding, illegal screening, illegal procedure, interference, pushing, stalling, offsides, withholding the ball from play, warding off and conduct fouls.

Fouls that are serious are called personal fouls and include body checking, slashing, cross checking, tripping, unnecessary roughness, unsportsmanlike conduct and use of illegal crosse.

Those flagged for personal fouls are suspended from the game for one- to three-minute intervals, depending on the severity and intent of the foul as determined by the officials.

Ryan Coffland, who played lacrosse at Western Illinois, said it took awhile to understand how to play with a man up or down.

“I played defense so first it took me awhile to figure out the defensive slide and who is sliding where,” he said. “We had different zone defenses when you were a man up or a man down. It took awhile to get used to my responsibilities, so I can imagine someone watching being confused.”

There are also times when play continues if a foul is committed. This is because the officials rule that the act of fouling did not force the player to lose possession. During these scenarios, the official will throw a flag and make verbal gesture of “flag down” and play will go on. The official will not sound his or her whistle until a goal is scored by the attacking team, the ball goes out of bounds or one of many other situations play out.