Several South Wake teams left the field Friday night much like they entered Friday night, still wondering what their fate would be when the North Carolina High School Athletic Association released their final playoff brackets on Saturday night.

Apex knew it was in after clinching second place in the Tri-Eight Conference, but didn't know what seed it would be.

There was far less certainty for Athens Drive, Cary and Middle Creek - three teams vying for third place in the Tri-Eight and the automatic playoff bid that comes with it.

Depending on what transpired, any of the three teams could have found themselves either in automatically or they could end in a three-way tie, which would mean the teams would have to draw for the third spot.

But fortunately for those three schools, each of them made it into the playoffs after the brackets were announced around 9 p.m. Saturday night.

It ended a topsy-turvy 24-hour period of trepidation for the three teams involved.

All Cary had to do was win, and the Imps were in the playoffs. Any other opponent, and perhaps the Imps could have pulled it off, but Fuquay-Varina (10-1, 7-0) was at home and had a No. 1 seed and conference championship on its mind.

The Bengals clinched all their goals with the 37-14 win.

"They don't deserve to end the season like this so," Cary coach Ben Kolstad said of his team after the game. "I hope we have a chance to kind of revenge this loss."

The loss meant Kolstad's team dropped to 4-7 overall and 4-3 in the conference. Now they needed Athens Drive to lose in order to avoid a draw and clinch an automatic berth.

But the Jaguars didn't play along, routing Green Hope 41-3, keeping the Falcons from securing a single win on the year. Athens Drive had now won four of their last six to also end the year 4-7 overall and 4-3 in the conference.

"I think we've really responded to injuries," coach Jeff Smouse said. "They finished the season well and that's a great thing. They took care of business."

So now the Jaguars were automatically in the playoffs, that is, so long as Middle Creek didn't defeat Panther Creek.

But the Mustangs rallied to win 24-14 and push their record to 4-7 overall and 4-3 in the Tri-Eight, meaning a three-way draw was in the works.

"I like to think this is a playoff team. We're just a little better than our record shows," coach Sean Crocker said of his Mustangs. "I think we're a playoff-caliber team and it'll depend what happens around the state whether we'll get in."

Each school sent a representative to Green Hope High School later that night to draw for the conference's third seed and an automatic berth in the playoffs.

Interestingly enough, Middle Creek Athletics Director Lewis Owens had some experience with this before. Last year, his Mustangs were in a three-way tie for first and came away with the No. 1 seed.

Although no rabbit's foot or four-leaf clovers were in plain sight, Owens won this draw as well, and while it may not have had do-or-die implications since Cary and Athens Drive also made the postseason, the Mustangs will now host a first-round game in the 4-A playoffs against Smithfield-Selma (6-4) this Friday.

Cary is the 15-seed in the 4-A bracket will travel to No. 2 SE Raleigh for a re-match of a 27-18 SE Raleigh win earlier this year. Athens Drive is the 14-seed and must go to the 4-A bracket's third-seed, Southern Durham (8-2). Southern Durham won the PAC 6 conference title after a tie-breaker and SE Raleigh (9-1)won the Greater Neuse Conference outright.

Apex is the only area team placed into the larger classification, the 4-AA playoffs. The 7-seeded Cougars have an 8-2 record after dropping a non-conference loss and will host 10-seed West Johnston (7-3) on Friday.

NOTE: Correspondents Joe Overby and Josh Harrell contributed to this report.