Five Palo Verde High School students, including four varsity football players, were arrested Wednesday in connection with two arson fires at Faith Lutheran Junior/Senior High School in August.

The four football players arrested Wednesday will be barred from playing in Saturday's state championship semifinal game between Palo Verde and Galena High School.

Don York, resident agent in charge of the Las Vegas field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the juveniles face state felony charges related to the two August incidents.

Glass bottles filled with flammable fluid scorched the side of a portable classroom on Faith Lutheran's Summerlin campus.

The Clark County Fire Department also confirmed the arrests.

"Five juveniles who attend Palo Verde High School were arrested today in connection with the firebombing of Faith Lutheran in August," said Scott Allison, acting spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department. "Four of the five are members of the Palo Verde football team."

Allison said arson investigators had planned to interview the suspects on Wednesday, but the interviews developed into arrests. Allison said it was his understanding that those arrested were taken to the Clark County Juvenile Detention Center.

York said authorities might make additional arrests related to the case.

He said he didn't know of the motive for the crimes, but August reports that arson at the parochial school might have been a hate crime have not been supported.

"As far as I know, that's not the case," York said. "We're just thankful it only resulted in property damage."

York said he could not release the names of those taken into custody because none of them are adults. However, two of Palo Verde's key players, quarterback J.D. Buonantony and running back Rashan Lawrence, didn't show up for Wednesday's football practice.

Panthers Coach Darwin Rost refused to explain the absence of two key players from one of the last team practices leading up to Palo Verde's semifinals championship game in Reno. Rost is married to Lauren Kohut-Rust, deputy superintendent of instruction for the Clark County School District.

Rich Buonantony, the quarterback's father, wouldn't comment on the matter when contacted by phone in San Diego.

Rich Buonantony is a former strip club manager for Michael Galardi, who admitted bribing politicians to protect the financial viability of his clubs and now awaits sentencing on political corruption charges.

Clark County School District Superintendent Walt Rulffes confirmed that five students had been suspended from the Northwest Region high school on Wednesday in connection with the Faith Lutheran incidents.

Rulffes was traveling and did not know if the students who had been suspended were on the football team.

"If a student is suspended, they are not allowed to participate in district activities," Rulffes said. "Thus, if they are on the football team, they are not allowed to play."

The incident is the latest in a series of scandals involving student athletes this year.

On Feb. 3, members of the Sierra Vista High School boys' varsity basketball team jumped a new player, with one or more of the attackers allegedly inserting fingers into the victim's rectum. Las Vegas police investigated the case as sexual misconduct.

In April, a Mojave High School basketball player was arrested for being among the group of youths involved in the widely publicized beating of two MGM Grand workers, an incident caught on surveillance video.

School Board Member Larry Mason, who also sits on the Nevada Interscholastic Athletic Association, said it's the right decision to suspend students from play if they've been involved in crimes such as the arson at Faith Lutheran.

When asked if the incident tarnishes Saturday's upcoming game, Mason said he believes it's the school, not the game, that will suffer as a result of the arson arrests.

"The game will go on," Mason said. "PV (Palo Verde) will have to revamp and go forward."

Review-Journal writers Damon Seiters and David Kihara contributed to this report.