Three Stark County teams are all that remain. After two rounds of the 2026 OHSAA football playoffs, Massillon, Canton McKinley and West Branch carry the county’s banner into the regional semifinals on Friday, Nov. 13, each facing a road test against a higher seed — and, for two of them, a shot at payback against the team that ended their season a year ago.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association announced the third-round pairings on Sunday, Nov. 8. Statewide, 112 teams remain — 16 in each of the seven divisions — and all 56 regional semifinal games are set for Friday, most kicking off at 7 p.m., according to the pairings reported by the Canton Repository and High School on SI.
McKinley owns the county’s loudest win of the tournament so far. The No. 7 Bulldogs (9-3) went on the road and beat No. 2 Austintown Fitch 27-22 in the Division I, Region 1 quarterfinal — a win the Canton Repository called a wild road victory and the 900th victory in program history. Massillon, the No. 3 seed in Division II, Region 7, was just as emphatic at home, dominating Columbus DeSales 48-0 at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for its second straight shutout, the Repository reported.
West Branch took the hardest road of the three. The No. 3 Warriors (10-1) trailed Poland by 15 points early in the second quarter before rallying to win 28-21 in Division IV, Region 13. Quarterback Grady Hirst, a Youngstown State recruit, accounted for 354 yards of offense, all four West Branch touchdowns and a two-point conversion, according to the Canton Repository.
Friday’s matchups, per the Canton Repository: in Division I, Region 1, No. 7 Canton McKinley (9-3) plays at No. 3 Mentor (9-2); in Division II, Region 7, No. 3 Massillon (10-1) plays at No. 2 Big Walnut (11-0); and in Division IV, Region 13, No. 3 West Branch (10-1) plays at No. 2 Rocky River (11-0). All three games kick off at 7 p.m.
Both McKinley and Massillon get a revenge angle with their trips. Mentor has knocked McKinley out of the playoffs in each of the previous two years, and Big Walnut has done the same to Massillon, the Canton Repository noted. West Branch, meanwhile, faces an unbeaten Rocky River team on the road with a regional final berth at stake.
Not every Stark County story survived the weekend. Canton Central Catholic, reinstated to the bracket after Youngstown Liberty forfeited a first-round win for using an ineligible player, lost 37-0 to No. 1 seed Lake County Perry (11-0). Central Catholic finished 7-5 with 95 yards of offense after trailing 23-0 in the first quarter, according to the Repository. Our earlier look at the area’s contenders, Six Akron-Area Teams Chase Regional Final Berths in Friday Playoff Semifinals, tracked the neighboring Summit County field heading into the same round.
The road from here is short and steep. Regional championships are set for Nov. 20, the state semifinals for Nov. 27, and the seven OHSAA state championship games for Dec. 3-5 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton — meaning two more wins put any of the three Stark County survivors within one game of playing for a title in their own county.
The regional semifinal round is where Ohio’s playoff field gets serious: 112 teams started the weekend, and by Friday night half of them will be gone. For Stark County, the math carries extra weight — all three survivors must win on the road against higher seeds, which means none of them will play another home game unless they reach the state semifinals. McKinley’s 900th program win, Massillon’s back-to-back shutouts and West Branch’s 15-point comeback each say the same thing in different ways: these are teams playing their best football in November, which is exactly when Stark County programs have historically been hardest to beat.
What happens next is Friday night itself: three road games, three higher seeds, and a county that has sent at least one team deep into November for generations. Winners advance to the regional finals on Nov. 20.
Photo: Sean P Bender, CC BY-SA