The stakes are a little higher this weekend for the area's high school football teams.

It's playoff time in Ohio, and that means the intensity of the players and their fans gets turned up several notches. The reality of playoff football sets in - win and you play next week. Lose and your season ends.

Fans from all parts of our area will have plenty to cheer about this weekend.

Steubenville Big Red, Buckeye Local and Harrison Central will all begin their runs toward Ohio's Division III championship at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Big Red, which has returned to Division III, will put its 9-1 record on the line when it meets Alliance Marlington (8-2) at Harding Stadium; Buckeye Local will take an 8-2 record into its game against Canal Fulton Northwest (7-3) at War Memorial Stadium in Rayland; and Harrison Central will carry an 8-2 record into its game at Dover (9-1).

Big Red will be making its 22nd trip to the Ohio playoffs. Steubenville has a post-season record of 42-18 and has won three state titles, the last coming in 2006. Marlington will be making just its third trip to the playoffs, having lost its first-round games in its previous appearances.

While Steubenville has become a fixture in the post-season, Harrison Central will be making its first trip to the playoffs in the school's 10-year history.

It's difficult to earn a playoff spot in Ohio. According to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, there are 718 schools in the state that field football teams. Only 32 of the teams in each of the state's six divisions qualified for the playoffs.

The goal of each of those 192 teams is to survive the five-week, single-elimination tournament and win a state title. For our local teams, the Division III championship will be decided at 11 a.m. Dec. 4 at Massillon's Paul Brown Tiger Stadium.

Fans of the Big Red, Buckeye Local and Harrison Central programs have a history of turning out to support their teams, so we are sure there will be large crowds on hand at each of this weekend's games.

You can also expect to see that kind of support next weekend when Brooke, Weirton Madonna and Oak Glen begin their runs in the West Virginia playoffs.

While we would never be so bold as to try to predict the outcomes of this weekend's games, we are happy to be able to congratulate all of the are teams for earning playoff spots.

We're sure they will begin their playoff runs with the support of fans from all parts of our area.