Lacrosse Penalties and Fouls: Every Call + Penalty Times
By the Swizin research desk · Last verified 2026-10-10.
Every lacrosse penalty falls into one of two buckets. Personal fouls are the safety violations (slashing, cross-checking, illegal body checks) and cost one to three minutes in the box.
Technical fouls are the procedural ones (holding, pushing, offsides) and cost 30 seconds, or just possession. Learn the two buckets and the calls inside each, and you will never watch a flag fly without knowing what happened.
If you landed here because a referee just threw a flag and the announcer said something about "one minute" or "non-releasable," this page is your decoder: every call you will hear in a men's or boys' game, how long each one lasts, what happens while the penalty is served, and how the rules change across NFHS, NCAA, and youth lacrosse.
Everything below is checked against the Indiana Lacrosse Officials Association's parent guide and officials' training materials. New to the sport? Start with our beginner's guide to lacrosse.
- What are the two kinds of lacrosse penalties?
- Personal fouls: every call and penalty time
- Technical fouls: every call and what it costs
- What happens after the whistle: flag down, play-on, and slow whistles
- Releasable vs non-releasable: the rule nobody explains
- Man-down and man-up: what a penalty creates
- Penalty box rules: re-entering, stacking penalties, and the goalie
- Fouling out and ejection: how players get removed
- How NFHS, NCAA, and USA Lacrosse youth rules differ
- Fouls in the women's game
- Questions parents ask about fouls
What are the two kinds of lacrosse penalties?
The Indiana Lacrosse Officials Association frames it for beginners: technical fouls are less serious, while personal fouls often concern safety and are penalized more harshly, with latitude for the level of play.
The cost structure is fixed. Under NFHS boys' rules, technical fouls always carry 30 seconds when time is served at all; personal fouls carry one, two, or three minutes at the official's judgment.
Memorize that ladder and half the announcements you hear will make instant sense.
The penalty ladder, from 30 seconds to ejection.
Personal fouls: every call and penalty time
Personal fouls are about safety, and the referee's judgment sets the time: two minutes if intentional or excessive, three if both, longer for head or neck contact, defenseless players, and blindside hits. The full catalog sits in the reference table below.
The raised fist: the official is signalling a time-serving penalty.
Technical fouls: every call and what it costs
Technical fouls are about procedure, not safety, and the subtlety most guides fumble is that a technical foul does not always mean penalty time.
Per the Indiana Lacrosse Officials Association: if the team that committed it has the ball, play stops and possession changes hands with no time served.
Time is served only when the technical was committed against the team with possession.
The full reference table: definitions follow the plain-English catalogs of Souderton Boys Lacrosse and the Indiana Lacrosse Officials Association; timing and enforcement follow NFHS officials' training materials.
| Foul | Type | Penalty time | Released by a goal? | What the player did |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Slashing | Personal | 1–3 min | Usually | A hard, swinging stick check hitting anything other than the opponent's gloves or stick; at youth levels, even a reckless swing with no contact can draw it. |
| Cross-checking | Personal | 1–3 min | Yes | Checking with the shaft between the hands, driving it outward like a plunger. |
| Illegal body check | Personal | 1–3 min | Yes | Hitting an opponent without the ball who is more than five yards from a loose ball, or after the pass or shot; hitting from behind, below the waist, or above the shoulders. |
| Head or neck contact (targeting) | Personal | 2–3 min | No | Contact to an opponent's head or neck initiated with stick or body. Intentional targeting risks ejection. |
| Defenseless player | Personal | 2–3 min | No | A body check on a player in a defenseless position: blind side, head down on a loose ball, or head turned to receive a pass. |
| Unnecessary roughness | Personal | 1–3 min | Yes | Contact clearly beyond a legal check: late hits on passers and shooters, or a ball carrier lowering a shoulder into a defender. |
| Tripping | Personal | 1–3 min | Yes | Using the stick or body to trip an opponent. |
| Illegal stick or equipment | Personal | 1–3 min | No | Stick too short, pocket too deep, or other illegal gear. From 2026, NFHS treats a non-goalie entering his own crease to act as goalkeeper as a non-releasable illegal-equipment personal foul. |
| Unsportsmanlike conduct | Personal | 1–3 min | No | Taunting, abusive or profane language, arguing with officials, or deliberately delaying the game. |
| Fighting / ejection fouls | Personal | 3 min | No (ejection) | Striking or attempting to strike an opponent, leaving the bench during an altercation, or flagrant misconduct. The player is removed and a substitute serves the time. |
| Holding | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | Impeding an opponent or his stick with the hands, a free arm, or by pinning the stick against the body. |
| Pushing | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | Shoving an opponent from behind. Equal pressure from the front or side is legal. |
| Interference | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | Blocking the free movement of a player without the ball, often with a moving pick; includes contact with the goalie inside his crease. |
| Warding off | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | The ball carrier using his free hand to push, hold, or control the opponent's stick or body. |
| Illegal screen | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | A pick set while moving, leaning, or with feet wider than shoulder width. Contact must be made for the call. |
| Offsides | Technical | 30 sec | n/a | Too many players on one side of the midfield line. The scenarios behind it deserve their own breakdown. |
| Crease violation | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | An attackman stepping into the goal crease. If he scores, the goal is disallowed. |
| Withholding the ball | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | Clamping the stick over the ball, lying on it, or pinning it against the body so it cannot be played. |
| Illegal procedure | Technical | 30 sec or possession | n/a | The catch-all: face-off violations, substitution infractions, delay of game, and other minor infractions. |
| Conduct foul | Technical | 30 sec | n/a | Arguing with officials or gesturing at calls: the lighter cousin of unsportsmanlike conduct. |
What happens after the whistle: flag down, play-on, and slow whistles
Flag down (the slow whistle). When the defense fouls while the offense has the ball (other than most goalie interference and crease violations), the official yells "Flag down!", throws the flag straight up, and keeps the whistle silent.
The offense gets a free chance to score while the defense plays afraid to foul again. The whistle comes on a second defensive foul, a penalty by the offense, a goal, a change of possession, or the ball going out of bounds.
Here is the detail that surprises people. If the offense scores with the flag down and the pending penalty was a technical foul, the goal counts and the foul is wiped out. If it was a personal foul, the penalty is still enforced.
Play-on. When a technical foul happens while the ball is loose, there is no flag. The official raises one arm and calls "play-on." If the fouled team scoops the ball within a few seconds, the official points, calls "play-on over," and the game continues with no whistle.
Only if they cannot gain possession does the whistle blow and the ball get awarded: lacrosse's version of soccer's advantage rule.
Flag down: the foul has been seen, but play is not stopping yet.
Releasable vs non-releasable: the rule nobody explains
Most penalties are releasable: if the team with the extra man scores, the penalized player is released early. Score 20 seconds into a one-minute slash and the slasher walks out. The exception is the non-releasable penalty.
The serious ones are non-releasable: the full time must be served no matter how many goals go in. Per officials' training, that covers illegal equipment, unsportsmanlike conduct, and head-or-neck or defenseless-player fouls.
When opposite teams are penalized at the same time and the penalties start together, the longest common time becomes non-releasable for both.
Man-down and man-up: what a penalty creates
While a player serves time, his team defends a man short: typically five defenders plus the goalie against six attackers.
The short-handed unit packs into a zone, often a tight box or diamond, forcing the ball to the perimeter where shots are weaker, while the extra-man offense (coaches call it EMO) swings the ball quickly, hunting the rotation that arrives one step slow.
As a spectator, the formation change is the tell. When the penalized player heads to the box, watch the defense collapse into its zone and the offense spread wider.
An undisciplined team can lose a game from the box without ever being the worse team at even strength.
Penalty box rules: re-entering, stacking penalties, and the goalie
The penalized player reports to the box immediately and takes a knee beside the scorer's table. He returns through the substitution area once the timekeeper releases him, but not during a face-off until possession is called, and a penalty cannot be released by a goal until he is actually in the box with his time ticking.
Stacking penalties. Under NFHS Rule 7, at most three players from one team may serve in the box at once; extras wait in the bench area next to the scorer's table, and their time starts only when one of the three's time expires.
Penalties never force a team below seven on-field players.
The goalie. When the goalkeeper is penalized, he serves the penalty himself in the box while a properly equipped substitute goalkeeper takes his place in the crease.
Thirty seconds to three minutes watching your team defend short-handed.
Fouling out and ejection: how players get removed
Fouling out and being ejected are not the same thing. Under NFHS boys' rules, any player who accumulates five minutes of personal foul time is disqualified for the rest of the game: that is fouling out, not an ejection, and the player can play the next game.
USA Lacrosse youth rules lower the bar: three personal fouls or five minutes of personal foul time means disqualification.
Ejection is the bigger hammer. Per officials' training, automatic ejection fouls include a second non-releasable unsportsmanlike conduct foul, striking or attempting to strike an opponent (fighting), leaving the bench during an altercation, use of tobacco, and flagrant misconduct.
The penalty is three minutes, non-releasable, served by a substitute (the "in-home," the first attackman in the scorebook, per the Indiana Lacrosse Officials Association), and ejected players may also miss the next game depending on state and league rules.
How NFHS, NCAA, and USA Lacrosse youth rules differ
The ladder is consistent across codes. NCAA men's lacrosse matches the high school game: personal fouls of one to three minutes at the referee's discretion, technical fouls at 30 seconds, and non-releasable penalties for head-or-neck contact and unsportsmanlike conduct.
For the 2026 high school season, NFHS stiffened two calls: a non-goalie entering his own crease to block a shot or act as goalkeeper is now guilty of a personal foul for illegal equipment, non-releasable, and a player who loses his helmet and keeps playing is guilty of a technical foul for illegal procedure.
USA Lacrosse boys' youth rules modify the high school game more substantially, per the 2026 boys' youth rules guide.
There are no time-serving penalties at 8U: the player simply leaves the field. From 10U up, penalties follow NFHS rules, but body checking is banned at 8U, 10U, and 12U and only permitted in limited form at 14U; any one-handed stick check is a slash at every youth level; and contact is judged on a three-yard radius around the ball instead of the high school five. Local leagues tweak these, so the local rulebook has the final word.
Fouls in the women's game
The women's and girls' game does not use the men's penalty-time ladder at all. It uses a card system, and the numbers are precise.
Under the NCAA women's lacrosse game-day card guide: a green card means one minute player-down, releasable, for infractions like delay of game, holding, and offsides; a yellow card means two minutes player-down, releasable or non-releasable, for slashes, dangerous contact (non-releasable), and misconduct, and a second yellow to the same player means dismissal; a red card means five minutes player-down, non-releasable, with the player ejected for the rest of the game, reserved for flagrant or repeated violations and abusive language.
Once a team collects four yellow cards, subsequent yellows become non-releasable.
Because body contact is already illegal in the women's game, the catalog skews toward stick violations, dangerous checks, and delay of game rather than the hitting fouls above.
The NCAA stiffened this framework for the 2024 season (red cards went from two to five minutes), so treat timings in older articles with suspicion. Youth girls' rules follow USA Lacrosse's age-level modifications.
Questions parents ask about fouls
How long do lacrosse penalties last?
Under NFHS boys' rules, technical fouls carry 30 seconds when time is served, or cost only possession instead. Personal fouls carry one, two, or three minutes depending on severity.
What does "flag down" mean in lacrosse?
The slow whistle: the official sees a defensive foul while the offense has the ball, throws the flag, and lets play continue for a free scoring chance.
The whistle comes on a second foul, a goal, a change of possession, or the ball going out of bounds. The Indiana Lacrosse Officials Association's parent's guide to fouls and penalties explains the mechanics.
What is the difference between a releasable and a non-releasable penalty?
A releasable penalty ends early if the opposing team scores; most slashes, cross-checks, and trips are releasable. A non-releasable penalty must be served in full no matter how many goals go in. That covers illegal equipment, unsportsmanlike conduct, and head or neck contact.
How many personal fouls before a player fouls out?
Under NFHS boys' rules, fouling out is measured in minutes: five minutes of accumulated personal foul time disqualifies a player for the rest of the game.
USA Lacrosse youth rules add a count threshold of three personal fouls. Fouling out is not an ejection; the player can play the next game.
Can you be ejected from a lacrosse game?
Yes. Fighting, a second non-releasable unsportsmanlike conduct foul, leaving the bench during an altercation, and flagrant misconduct all bring automatic ejection, with a three-minute non-releasable penalty served by a substitute. Souderton Boys Lacrosse has a good plain-English catalog of the individual calls.
What happens when the other team scores during a flag-down?
If the pending penalty was a technical foul, the goal counts and the foul is wiped out. No time served. If it was a personal foul, the penalty is still enforced, which is why you sometimes see a player head to the box even after his team just conceded.