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Two Charged In Melee At Morgan Park-Simeon Football Game

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two teenagers have been charged in connection with a melee in the stands of a football game between Simeon and Morgan Park high schools on Friday.

Police said two juveniles are charged: A 14-year-old girl charged with reckless conduct, and a 16-year-old boy charged with disorderly conduct.

It was a wild scene and a wild scare in the stands at Gately Stadium at 103rd Street and Stony Island Avenue on Friday. With 10 minutes and 27 seconds left in the third quarter of the game, people started running in the stands - and running away from the stadium.

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CBS 2 saw perhaps 400 to 500 people running to get out of the stands on the east side of the stadium. They were shouting and screaming.

Some fans shouted that they'd heard there were gunshots. Others screamed that some people had been trampled. There were also reports of a person stabbed.

Within minutes, scores of Chicago Police officers descended on the stadium, and both football teams left the field. Police and Public League security cleared all the fans from the stadium.

One group of cheerleaders was seen huddled together in the center of the field, before they were escorted out of the stadium.

The fears about what happened turned out largely to be false alarms. Police later said there were no gunshots, and there was apparently just a fight in the stands. Someone may have thought he or she saw a gun, prompting the chaos.

Also, nobody was trampled, but the Chicago Fire Department confirmed one male was transported to Roseland Community Hospital with a stab wound.

What apparently erupted at the stadium was an almost electric reaction to perceived danger, by a huge crowd that lives in a community that is plagued by gun violence.

During the height of the panic and pandemonium, one young cheerleader took refuge in CBS 2's truck, saying, "You've got to save my life."

Parker and his CBS 2 crew had been on the scene for an unrelated story.

Simeon led Morgan Park 6-0 when the game was suspended. The game will be replayed at Gately Stadium on Sunday, but there will be no fans. It will be played to an empty stadium.

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