District Winners Decided For FHSAA Playoffs

     All district winners were decided last week in South Florida high school football. The schools that won their district from Class 5A to Class 8A automatically qualified as a top four seed in a region for the upcoming FHSAA playoffs.
     Defending Class 5A state champion American Heritage clinched District 16 with a win over Hallandale while Fort Pierce Westwood wrapped up District 15 in their previous game.
     District winners in Region 4 of Class 6A was already decided during Week 9. Miami Northwestern won the tough District 16 for the second straight year and so did Dillard in District 15. Mainland in District 13 and Heritage in District 14 also qualified in that region.
     Three of the four Class 7A district winners were finalized last week. Dwyer clinched their third straight title in District 13 with a victory over West Boca. St. Thomas Aquinas captured District 14 with a win over Blanche Ely for their sixth consecutive district title. Doral Academy had finished in first for District 16 in Week 9. West Broward won their first district title in school history as they captured the District 15 crown on October 30 when they defeated Cooper City and passed over Nova for first place.
     Region 3 in Class 8A had Palm Beach Central already finish first in District 9 in the prior week. Last week Atlantic got the District 10 district title as they defeated Boca Raton, Deerfield Beach captured District 11 as they topped Piper and Miramar beat Western to take District 12.
     Region 4 in Class 8A already had North Miami get the District 13 crown and Belen Jesuit wrapped up the District 15 title in Week 9. Columus was able to win District 14 with a victory over Coral Gables.
     District 16 finished in a three-way tie between Palmetto, South Dade and defending Class 8A state champion Southridge. The district would have been decided last year with a three-way tiebreaker one-quarter contests. The implementation of the new playoff points system in 2017 by the FHSAA means that all three schools will battle it out for the most average points to be determined after their Week 11 games.