By DAN BISER

All four Columbus County high school football teams will be among the 256 North Carolina squads in eight classifications who will step into state playoff action Friday night.

The Whiteville Wolfpack has emerged as the top seed in the East 2A bracket following its last-minute Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference victory over South Columbus Friday night (See related story).

Whiteville has a 9-2 record, but teams that played an 11-game regular-season schedule are allowed to drop a loss for playoff seeding purposes.

Whiteville will play host to Waccamaw Conference rival North Brunswick Friday night at Legion Stadium. The Wolfpack defeated North Brunswick 14-6 on Oct. 27 on a rain-drenched Legion Stadium turf, and the Scorpions have the No. 16 seed with a 4-7 season record.

South Columbus, which finished with an 8-3 record, has the No. 9 seed and will travel to Jacksonville Friday to take on the No. 8 Northside Monarchs. Northside defeated the Stallions in the third round of last year’s playoffs by a 10-0 score.

Opening-round wins by Whiteville and South Columbus would bring on another Wolfpack-Stallion match-up in second-round play on Nov.10 at Whiteville.

East Columbus, which ended up in three-way tie for fourth place in the Waccamaw Conference with 2A entries North Brunswick and South Brunswick, has the No. 14 seed in the East 1AA bracket and the Gators (3-8) are slated to take on the unbeaten and third-seeded East Bladen Cougars (10-0) of the Southeastern Conference at Elizabethtown.

West Columbus (2-9) has gained a berth in the West 1A bracket and will make the lengthy trip to play defending state champion Elkin. West Columbus has the No.14 seed while Elkin is No. 3. West Columbus finished in a tie with Red Springs for sixth place in the Southeastern 1A-2A Conference.

All four other Waccamaw Conference members have landed playoff spots. South Brunswick (6-5) will travel to take on Forest Hills in the East 2AA bracket while Pender (7-4) will play host to Spring Creek in the East 1AA bracket. Trask (2-8) will travel to play unbeaten James Kenan, also in the 1AA bracket.

Other Southeastern Conference teams headed to the playoffs include St. Pauls (6-5), which will play host to Southern Guilford in the East 2AA bracket; Fairmont (8-3), which will entertain Southwest Onslow in East 2A bracket; and South Robeson (3-7), which will travel to take on North Duplin in the West 1A bracket.