By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

It will be a big case of de ja vu Friday night at 7:30 when the Waccamaw Conference champion Whiteville Wolfpack opens the state 2A football playoffs at Legion Stadium against the visiting North Brunswick Scorpions.

It was just two weeks ago that the Wolfpack pulled out a 14-6 conference victory over the Scorpions on the same field. Daylong rains had drenched the field and rain continued to fall the rest of the evening.

Whiteville, which has a 9-2 record, has received the No. 1 seed in the 16-team East 2A bracket, meaning that it holds homefield advantage through the East finals. North Brunswick, with a 4-7 record, has the 16th seed.

Whiteville clinched its first outright conference championship in 14 years Friday with a 21-16 victory over perennial Waccamaw Conference champion South Columbus. The Wolfpack scored in the final minute of play on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Harrison Ford to Alex Royal to gain its first win over South Columbus since 1994.

North Brunswick closed its regular-season schedule by falling to West Brunswick 35-28 in overtime of a non-conference game.

Coach Little said that North Brunswick is a much better team than its 16th seed indicates.

“They are a dangerous football team,” Little said. “They gave us all we could handle the first time we played them. Hopefully, the field won’t be as wet this time, but we’re expecting them to play us just as tough. Having to play a conference opponent in the first round of the playoffs is a tough assignment, especially when it is a team you played just two weeks before.”

Little said his team showed a lot of heart in last week’s victory as it came back and scored the game-winning points after South Columbus took a 15-14 lead on a touchdown and successful two-point conversion with less than three minutes left.

“Our kids stepped up and got the job done,” Little said. “It was an outstanding football game.”

Running back Jarrod McKinney has been a main cog in the Whiteville offense this season as he has rushed for nearly 1,200 yards and has scored 17 touchdowns. The 200-pound junior ripped off scoring runs of 10 and 35 yards against South Columbus.

“Jarrod just runs the ball hard,” Little said. “He’s been a strong force for us this year.

“Our offensive line has gotten stronger and more experienced as the season progressed and this has also been a factor in our running game,” Little added.

The Whiteville defense has remained consistent since the start of the season and came across with another big performance against South Columbus.

North Brunswick is paced by senior tailback Joshua Balloon, a three-year starter, who at 220 pounds is same type runner as McKinney. Jessie Riley provides a lot of athleticism at the quarterback spot.

Coach Garry Bishop’s Scorpions have been through a rebuilding year after posting a 9-3 record and finishing as conference runnerup last season.

Whiteville will be opening the playoffs on its homefield for the first time since 1994. That year, Coach Russell Weinstein’s Wolfpack overcame a 24-7 second-quarter deficit to rally to a 33-30 first-round win over Eastern Alamance.