High-school football game in the South End ends with melee that started on nearby tennis court

Updated with BPD info.

A melee that started on a Carter Playground tennis court near where two high-school football teams were finishing their game ended with cops from across the city flooding the area, Columbus Avenue shut down and one adult and six teenagers under arrest.

The melee started around 6:20 p.m. as a smaller fight in which several teens had jumped one teen on the tennis court, Boston Police report.

As the juveniles began to disperse, they observed a male, later identified as the 16-year-old juvenile male, laying on the ground. The juvenile refused to cooperate with offers, and eventually fled from officers on foot, and officers lost sight of him in the large crowd that had become increasingly unruly and hostile towards officers.

Around 7:48 p.m., about five minutes before the end of a football game between Cathedral High and Archbishop Williams from Braintree, a BPD District D-4 supervisor went on the air to call every available D-4 cop to deal with skirmishes that were continuing to break out among kids running around the field.

A few minutes later, with fighting continuing, the call went out for reinforcements from the rest of the city's police districts - both officers and supervisors. Transit, Northeastern University and State Police also responded.

The crowd and the skirmishes spread to Columbus Avenue.

Officers blocked off Columbus to keep motorists from driving into the scene.

Other officers shielded the two football teams' players until they could escort them safely from the field.

As officers from other parts of the city arrived, they were sent into the crowd to get people to move along.

Police report arresting two teens on charges of disorderly conduct, two other teens on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and another on a charge of affray. Another teen was charged with assault and battery, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Chiquela Howard, 37, of Weymouth, was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest, police say.

Innocent, etc.