The Dysart High School football team will find out Tuesday if their senior running back will be allowed to play in the school’s first playoff game in more than 20 years.

Pedro Banda was ejected during the fourth quarter of Friday night’s win over Glendale High School when he drew an unsportsmanlike penalty after scoring a touchdown. Video shows Banda walking in the end zone after the play and pointing to the sky.

An ejection would normally make a player ineligible for the next game. But Arizona Interscholastic Association bylaws allow appeal of ejections in games that have an effect on the state tournament.

Banda’s ejection was automatic because he had drawn a similar penalty earlier in the game, said Gary Whelchel, AIA state commissioner of officials.

“The play itself was not the ejection,” Whelchel said. “The fact that he had already received an unsportsmanlike penalty earlier in the game, coupled with this one, created the ejection.”

Banda’s first unsportsmanlike penalty also came after a touchdown and was for pushing, taunting and shoving, Whelchel said. AIA officials are reviewing the play, as well as others involving Banda, before making a final decision whether Banda can play for Dysart on Saturday against Snowflake, he said. 

A Dysart Unified School District spokesman said the District supports Banda and his coach in the appeal.