Florida Football: Week 8 South Florida Preview
October 19th, 2007 Posted in Florida Sports, Florida, High School Sports, Florida Football, football, High School FootballThe Thursday night clashes are over, and it’s time to focus on tonight’s biggest games in South Florida. Note: we’re aware that Naples is in South Florida, but we’re throwing it and Fort Myers in with our Tampa preview, to come this afternoon. We’ll also have a Central Florida preview to finish off the slate.
District championships are the name of the game this week. Several of Friday’s losing teams will be out of the playoff picture or on the bubble. Meanwhile, several winners will secure home games for the first round of the quickly approaching post-season.
We’ll start down in Miami, where most top teams have what appears on paper to be a relatively easy night ahead. North Miami Beach (6-0) faces a winless Carol City team, and Central (6-0) faces Miami Lakes (0-7).
Meanwhile, the team that normally breezes to victory has, arguably, the toughest matchup. Miami Northwestern (6-0) hosts American (5-2) in a game that decides American’s playoff aspirations. There’s no reason to believe that American has a shot, but the score does start at 0-0.
Booker T. travels to Nova (2-4) and Deerfield Beach (6-0) hosts Taravella (2-4) in other Miamia-area games. St. Thomas travels to South Broward. The Raiders (5-1) are the favorites in this one.
One key battle is a toss-up, as Boyd Anderson (5-1) hosts Plantation (4-3). It’s just the District 6A-10 championship on the line here. If you want more championship action, Gulliver (7-0) travels to Archbishop Carroll (4-1) for the championship game of District 2A-8.
In 3A, Belen Jesuit (4-2) hosts Monsignor Pace (4-2) in a game that also has district championship hype. The winner will improve to 3-0 in the six-team district.
Other South Florida games include:
Jackson vs. Fort Lauderdale
South Miami vs. Miami Beach
Edison at Key West
Ferguson vs. Braddock
Dade Christian at Miami Country Day
Homestead vs. Palmetto
In Palm Beach, there are several key games as teams try to position for a playoff push after a topsy-turvy start to the season that saw all sorts of shifting and shoving between exhibiting the kind of parity that makes everyone 3-3. Okay, that’s not quite on the money. Palm Beach Lakes is 3-4, and its opponent tonight is 3-3. Palm Beach Gardens, though, is on a two-game win streak, and let’s not forget that the three losses were to Pahokee, Glades Central and Vero Beach. The Palm Beach Post has some more on this game.
In other games, Royal Palm Beach (4-2, 1-0) is at Lake Worth (5-2, 2-0). This District 6A-8 puts the loser on the outside looking in at a playoff spot in a district that also includes Park Vista (6-0, 1-0), which travels to Wellington (0-7, 0-2). For more on Royal Palm and Lake Worth, check out this Palm Beach Post story.
Another key game has Archbishop McCarthy (3-2, 2-0) at Glades Central (6-0, 1-0). This District 3A-15 game decides the district championship. The loser could fall into a district tie with Gibbons, but Glades Central holds the tiebreaker over Gibbons, which it defeated 32-3 three weeks ago. McCarthy and Gibbons meet on Nov. 2.
Another district championship will be decided at Glades Day, which hosts St. John Neumann (5-0). The swamp monsters are 4-2 this year, but they’re 1-0 in district games. That matches St. John Neumann. In a four-team district that has Moore Haven (1-5) and Evangelical Christian (1-5) at the bottom, both Glades Day and St. John Neumann are virtual locks to reach the playoffs.
Inlet Grove (5-1) hosts Cardinal Newman (4-2) in another important district game. If Newman loses, they’ll fall to 1-2 in District 2A-6. Clewiston is currently 1-0 in the district and has a 34-7 win last week against Newman. So Newman needs the game to stay in the playoff hunt. Meanwhile, Inlet Grove is 2-0 in the district and probably gets in if it defeats Newman tonight or Clewiston next Friday.
Another big game features Westminster Academy (6-0) against Benjamin (2-4). This was supposed to be the week Connor Kempe dismantled Westminster’s little 1A defense, but Kempe injured his shoulder and won’t play in this one for Benjamin.
Other Palm Beach games include:
American Heritage (5-1) at Calvary Christian (3-3)
Boca Raton (4-2) at Olympic Heights (1-5)
Atlantic (4-1) at Spanish River (0-6)
Melbourne (4-3) at Centennial (2-4)
Jensen Beach (1-5) at Martin County (4-2)
Treasure Coast (2-4) at South Fork (2-3)
Fort Pierce Central (1-5) at Sebastian River (2-4)
John Carroll (3-4) at Pahokee (6-0)
Seminole Ridge (3-3) at Palm Beach Central (2-4)
Summit Christian (0-5) at Northwest Christian (0-5)
Boynton Beach (2-4) at Dwyer (4-2)
West Boca Raton (4-3) at Forest Hill (0-6)
Leonard (2-4) at Santaluces (4-3)
Jupiter (3-3) at Vero Beach (6-0)
Pembroke Pines (2-5) at Suncoast (1-6)
Port St. Lucie (2-4) at Bayside (4-2)
Clewiston (1-5) at Pope John Paul II (3-3)
One Response to “Florida Football: Week 8 South Florida Preview”
By Terpfan on Oct 19, 2007
Ron…you put a lot of time into this stuff and you’re doing a great job. I check this site at least 5 times a day to make sure I haven’t missed anything.