Sixteen students at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, including 11 members of the football team, were arrested this week for their alleged involvement in a retaliatory attack off campus.

According to the Indiana Borough police, the students broke into a house on Wayne Avenue on Feb. 16 just before midnight in retaliation for a fight that had occurred at a party a week earlier between Dean Papougenis, a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, and IUP's backup quarterback, Danny Harris.

Andrew LaScola, a 22-year-old sophomore at IUP, said he was in his room at the house, along with five other people -- including Papougenis -- when they saw an estimated 35 men walking across the parking lot toward their house.

When they heard the men breaking windows in the house, the six of them barricaded the door to the bedroom, trying to prevent the group from getting inside.

"They were drilling the door so hard, the lights were flickering," said LaScola, of Hampton.

It was at that point that he called 911.

While all that was happening, LaScola said, another resident of the house, Justin Delong, emerged from his room to see what was going on, and he was beaten up. The attackers reportedly threw Delong against the refrigerator and into a fan, before he was able to escape out the back door.

They also stole Delong's Xbox video-game system, his cell phone and textbooks, LaScola said.

"It was completely ridiculous," he said.

After the men finally left the house, LaScola and his friends went outside to try to see if they could identify the men walking away, but the group saw them, and started shouting.

"They were screaming 'There's Dean. There's the kid we came to get,' " LaScola said.

Several men came running over and started a brawl, breaking bottles over the heads of Papougenis and Korey Zimmerman, and slamming Zimmerman into a guardrail, LaScola said.

Papougenis and Harris were then going to fight each other, LaScola said, but he didn't think it was a fair fight.

"They kind of squared up to go one on one, but Dean probably couldn't see straight at that point," LaScola said.

In the brawl, LaScola chipped a tooth, and both Papougenis and Zimmerman had to get stitches.

"For as many kids as there were, the only really serious injury was Dean getting hit with the bottle," LaScola said. "They brought 35 guys to look for one person. They beat up people that had nothing to do with it."

The victims were particularly angry that items were stolen from the house.

"I think they took it too far," LaScola said.

The students are charged with several felonies. Among the charges are counts of robbery, burglary, trespass, assault, criminal mischief and harassment.

The students charged include Harris, formerly from Kennedy Catholic High School in Neshannock; starting quarterback Kevin Weidl, formerly from Mt. Lebanon High School; linebackers Tye Desiderio, from Kittanning, and Y'Hoshua Murray, from Woodland Hills; defensive linemen Matthew Scott, from West Allegheny, Frank Scatena Jr., from Kiski, and Kirby Griffin, from Rochester; defensive backs Pat McDanel, from Beaver, and Kenneth Evans Jr., from Washington; tight end Mark Walters, from Albert Gallatin; and wide receiver Peter Smith, from Pittston.

The other students charged are: Angelo Manifest, Brandon Sessoms, Mike Boyd, Desmond Boys, and Michael Orangis.

Football Coach Frank Cignetti did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Michelle Fryling, a spokeswoman for the university, said all students who are charged criminally while enrolled at the school must also go through a university-run judicial review supervised by the Office of Student Conduct.

Each case is heard by a board of students, faculty, administrators and staff, and the board then makes a determination as to punishment, if necessary. The penalties can range from counseling and probation, to suspension or expulsion from the university, Fryling said.

"Regardless of their affiliation with any team, our students' conduct should reflect their status as a responsible citizen of this university," she said. "This kind of behavior will not be tolerated.

"We are very concerned about our students' conduct no matter where it happens."