Can a Penalty be called without a Flag?
 

Specifically, during an onside kick in a recent HS game the kicking team appeared to recover the onside kick just past the 10 yard mark. No flag was thrown at any time during or after the play was dead. The kicking team was subsequently called for illegally touching the ball before it went 10 yards.

The question is can a penalty be enforced after the fact without a flag ever being thrown? Is it possible the referee forgot to flag the penalty and its ok to award the ball to the recieving team afterward?

Thanks

Generally, when information is shared among officials that help the crew, or an official, realize that there was a foul, one of them will drop their flag to the ground. Usually it's the official that should have had the flag to begin with.

Enforcing something without a flag should never be done, primarily from on optics point of view.

The NFL mechanic of the wing sharing info with the R for a possible grounding call is a perfect example. The R will listen to the wing, and if a foul was committed, the R will take his flag and nonchalantly toss/drop it to the ground.

Illegal touching is not a penalty. It's just illegal touching, and usually marked by a beanbag.

This.
Ball should have been awarded to R at spot of first touching.

If the game was played under NFHS rules, this would be "first touching" rather than illegal touching, but as Mike says it's not a foul. It is one of the "game situations which produce results somewhat similar to penalties, but which are not classified as fouls."

No foul, no flag. :)

More precisely, it is not a FOUL, but rather a violation. Violations, at least under the NCAA code, do not have penalties associated with them. In addition to the bean bag, an illegal touching signal could be used.

If part of the mechanic is skipped and an enforcement takes place, it's not some kind of "gotcha" where a due process right has been violated and the violation is wiped out, if that's what's being asked.