Vocal Coach

[mplagrow]

I reffed an 8th grade game with a coach known to be extremely vocal about calls and noncalls that don't exist. This time, his star player had three fouls in the first quarter, fair calls. My partner, an experienced guy, mentioned at the half that it was a shame this decent player had three fouls already, and we should make sure that if we call a foul on him, that it was a 'real' foul. He then privately told this coach that we wouldn't ticky-tack him out of the game. The coach showed tremendous respect to us at the end of the game (lost by 1). Does the end justify the means in this case? The player finished with 3 fouls, but I felt like I had to be cautious about calling against him. I don't think my partner was trying to tell ME something, because I only called one of the fouls, and it was obvious.