With his team trailing SMB 35-0 with eight minutes left in the second quarter Friday night, Breck coach Jon Martin said he decided to forfeit the game because he feared for the safety of his players.

Three two-way starters had sustained injuries and had to leave the the game, the coach said, and a fourth two-way starter tried to keep playing after he injured a knee.

“I just didn’t feel like it was a safe environment for our kids,’’ said Martin, who called it the “hardest decision of my coaching career.’’

SMB, a cooperative program that combines players from St. Paul Academy, Blake and Minnehaha Academy, had just scored a touchdown when Martin told officials he was taking his team off the field at Blake School.

Breck (2-5), a Class 3A team, has about 30 players, mostly sophomores, Martin said. SMB, whose member schools combined into one program last year, lists about 75 players on its roster.

Martin, while stressing that SMB (7-0) played a clean game, said his team was “completely overmatched.’’

During the game, one Breck player sustained a broken arm and was taken to the hospital, Martin said. Another injured his shoulder and a third injured his ankle. The sideline “looked like a triage unit,’’ he said.

The two programs were grouped into the same 26-team Twin Cities district after football conferences were dissolved before the 2015-16 school year. Martin said he had concerns going into the season about his team playing SMB because of the participation gap between the two programs and the relative youth of his team. He said the programs will not play each other next year when new sub-district changes are implemented.

After the game Martin spoke with his players, some of whom “were not happy with me,’’ he said. He expects to take heat for the decision but that it was the right one to make. Breck will play Minneapolis Henry in its regular-season finale on Wednesday before starting into section playoffs. He said he hopes some of his injured players will be healthy enough to play.

“I’m sorry for our kids,’’ said Martin, an assistant athletic director who has coached for 10 years and been head coach for the last four. “Hopefully, one day they’ll understand I did this for their safety.’’

Neither Martin nor SMB coach Collin Quinn said he could recall a similar forfeit situation in their coaching careers.