A state Supreme Court judge ruled Friday morning that the Instiute of Technology football team can play in the next round of the Section III playoffs after hearing arguments hours earlier.

Parents spoke out this week and the Syracuse city school district defended the team in court after the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Section III's decision to disqualify the team from the sectional playoffs.

Earlier this week, Syracuse City School District officials were told by the section that ITC used an ineligible player during its 22-14 quarterfinal playoff victory over Vernon Verona Sherrill last weekend. The team was forced to forfeit the game. According to NYSPHSAA rules, any player ejected from a game must sit out the next game.

The player's ineligibility is in dispute due to, according to a petition to the State Supreme Court, the status of an ejection that occurred in ITC's regular-season finale against Indian River on Oct. 25. In the petition, the Syracuse City School District claims video shows that the player ejected "committed no foul on the play," and the referee who threw the penalty flag leading to the ejection was "not part of the action the official was observing at the time."

Also, the district's petition states that an officials' report of the ejection had not been filed by game time against VVS, and that due to this, the petition claims, Section III Executive Director Jason Czarny said an appeal of the ejection was moot, since "without an officials' report the ejection did not occur."

The school district also rallied support for the athletes from the community.

"We're hoping that people can get the facts straight and come to the right decision in time, so these kids can enjoy what they've worked so hard for," said Anthony Heard, a family member of one of the ITC players.