Only four Tucson area schools remain in the 2011 state football playoffs. The caveat is three get to play at home Thursday night and look to make the best of that advantage in the quarterfinals of the Division II and Division III tournaments. The fourth, Empire, plays a Division IV quarterfinal game Saturday at 3 p.m. at North Canyon High School (preview to come later in the week).

No. 2 seed Cienega and No. 6 Ironwood Ridge survived in Division II last week. Sabino, the No. 1 seed in D-III, has sailed along all season. Valley schools are their opponents and hoping to vanquish the Old Pueblo from further action. Valley schools will be the underdogs in each contest.

Cienega (11-0) hosts No. 7 Marcos de Niza (9-2), which had little trouble eliminating Canyon del Oro last week. Marcos de Niza made a trip to Tucson in September and was handled by Ironwood Ridge, 34-20. Marcos de Niza has won six consecutive games since. Cienega is led by 1,850-yard rusher Manny Vera (29 touchdowns) and 1,750-yard passer Michael Archie. Cienega bounced Sahuaro from the playoffs and its marquee win to date came in the season opener with Sabino, a 17-16 triumph.

Marcos de Niza quarterback Tommy Thornton has produced huge numbers with 2,251 yards passing and 683 rushing. He been part of 26 touchdowns (18 through the air and 8 on the ground). Running back Mauriece Lee has chipped in with 681 yards rushing and is just one of several speedsters the Bobcats must contend with.

Ironwood Ridge (9-2) faces a motivated Notre Dame Prep (7-4). The Saints have won five in a row and seven of eight since starting 0-3. Their losses are to Chaparral, Marcos de Niza, Hamilton and Rio Rancho, N.M. Notre Dame's run carries the added emotion of playing for coach Scot Bemis, who is battling lung cancer and took a leave of absence from the team in September to battle the illness.

Running back Mitch Fischer (1,565 yards rushing) and quarterback Tyler Williams (965 on the ground) key a ball-control rushing attack. Notre Dame, which moved up a couple notches to compete in Division II, serves up a more balance attack led by quarterback Jordan Gehrke (1,885 yards passing and 22 TDs) and running back Nick Cole (1,335 yards rushing and 11 TDs).

In Division III, top-seed Sabino (10-1), winner of 10 straight games, has a date with last year's 4A-II champ Thunderbird (8-3). Sabino is led by versatile quarterback Dallas Brown, who has pilled up 2,200 yards rushing and passing. Brown is 17 yards shy of 1,000 yards rushing for the year. He has plenty of help in the ground game from four backs with more than 200 yards each -- Cody Lloyd, Sunthi Danh, Chance Stephens and Ricky Gonzalez. Sabino's defense isn't too shabby either, allowing 40 points in 11 games. Seventeen of those came in the opening loss to Cienega. Thunderbird has won five games in a row, but dropped games to Division III high seeds Saguaro (5) and Cactus (3) during the season.