Deerfield Beach opened its new stadium in style Saturday night.

In its first true home game in two years, Deerfield Beach put on a dominating performance against Douglas to claim the District 9-6A title with a 42-6 victory at Butler Stadium.

``Bringing the district title home on the opening of the stadium, I don't think you could write a better script,'' first-year Deerfield Beach coach Adam Ratkevich said.

With the victory, Deerfield locked up the district and will play host to a regional quarterfinal Nov. 20. The opponent will be determined after a three-team tiebreaker for second place in District 10-6A between Plantation, South Plantation and Western.

Douglas (2-7, 1-2) was eliminated from the playoffs with the defeat, giving second place in the district to Northeast, which will play at Miramar in the opening round of the playoffs.

Deerfield Beach (6-3, 3-0) cruised to victory behind quarterback Donte' Dotson, who threw three touchdown passes and rushed for another. Dotson also had a 61-yard interception return that set up Deerfield Beach's second score.

With Deerfield Beach leading 35-6 and time winding down, Dotson completed the scoring with a 1-yard run.

``I had to score,'' Dotson said. ``I had to get a touchdown.''

Dotson said the team had a competition going all week in practice to see who would be the first to score on the new field. That honor went to Kevin Correa, who caught Dotson's first touchdown pass for 23 yards in the first quarter, and had another in the fourth.

``I told them I was gonna share the ball with them,'' Dotson said. ``But when it was my time, I'm going to try to get in the end zone.''

Running back Cassius McDowell caught one of Dotson's touchdown passes and rushed for two more scores. He finished with 85 yards on nine carries.

McDowell had been hampered by an ankle injury all season, but Ratkevich said he thinks McDowell is back in form heading into the playoffs.

The lone bright spot for Douglas was running back Orville Reynolds, who had 138 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. His touchdown came in the second quarter on a 36-yard sprint up the middle.

• Late Friday -- Hollywood Hills 49, West Palm Beach Forest Hill 13: Hollywood HIlls (4-4, 1-1) clinched a playoff spot in District 16-4A behind Luis Vazquez's 81 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Jeffrey Levine ran for 79 yards and two touchdowns. Hollywood Hills, which led 42-7 at halftime, got all seven of its touchdowns on the ground.

• Late Friday -- Flanagan 47, West Broward 3: Matthew Vincent had another stellar performance to lead Flanagan (4-5, 1-2 District 11-6A) past West Broward. Vincent completed 13 of 16 passes for 222 yards and five touchdowns.

Three of the touchdown passes went to Roosevelt Juin, who finished with six catches for 140 yards.

• Late Friday -- Boca Raton Olympic Heights 24, Fort Lauderdale 18: Olympic Heights running back Tavon Jenkins rushed for 113 yards, including the winning touchdown.

Fort Lauderdale is 4-5 and 1-3.

-- SEAN D'OLIVEIRA

• Late Friday -- MacArthur North 36, Hollywood Christian 0: MacArthur (4-4, 4-1) won the District 8-1B title behind Latavius Thomas, who had two touchdown runs, and Brandon Turner, who had two touchdown passes. MacArthur North will play host to Belle Glade Glades Day in the first round of the playoffs in two weeks. Hollywood Christian (4-4, 2-3) is eliminated.

• Late Friday -- Highlands Christian 34, Coral Springs Christian 0: Michael Gray completed 7 of 13 passes for 171 yards and three touchdowns and ran for another score to lead Highlands (3-6, 1-4).

• Late Friday -- West Palm Beach King's Academy 76, Westminster Academy 0: Greg Fortune ran for 83 yards on 20 carries for Westminster Academy.

• Late Friday -- Belle Glade Glades Day 64, Zion Lutheran 0

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@