You won't believe what happened to this innocent teenage boy who prayed during a football game

'They thought I was saying I was number one and I was taunting the other team'

Seventeen-year-old Pedro Banda, a senior at Dysart High School in El Mirage, Arizona, scored a touchdown and thanked God. He was then ejected from the game for "unsportsmanlike conduct."

span style="line-height: 1.22;">LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Banda claimed he touched his face mask before pointing to the sky and looking up "for about four seconds," then a referee threw a flag and ejected him from the football game. 

He was also suspended and is unable to play in the team's first playoff game in 25 years. Banda claimed he was thanking God and that "[e]xcessive celebration is when you use the ball as a prop or you do something to the other team or put on a show with your teammates. I just thank God for all the power he's given me to play the game."

Dysart High School Athletic Director Tyrus Timbrooks told ABC that the action was Banda's second offense of the night and prompted the referees to eject him from the game. Banda had been flagged by a ref earlier in the game following an aggressive argument with a member of the other team.

Timbrooks reviewed the tape the next day and said Banda did not deserve to be flagged the second time and that the praising God motion was something Banda habitually did after scoring touchdowns. Timbrooks has since filed an appeal with the Arizona Interscholastic Association.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association released a statement to KTRE and said they "are already reviewing this ejection and associated video, and are awaiting an appeal request from Dysart."

The Association explained, "Since this victory placed Dysart into the state tournament, the ejection is reviewable by our appeal committee. The unsportsmanlike penalty given to #15 on the touchdown at 4:40 left in the game was his second of the game, which, by rule, is an automatic ejection. 

"This is the reason he was ejected on the call. The call by itself would not warrant an ejection. Both teams had been warned during the game about taunting, and the flag was a reaction to the behaviors that had already been patterned in the game, not for the reasons given in the media. We should reach a decision by late Monday -pending the appeal request."

In an interview with NewsFix, Banda's mother claimed Banda has thanked God after every touchdown since he was eight-years-old and that "it's a thing with him and his brother ... if it is a rule I would have liked to have been informed of it." 

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