FUQUAY-While Fuquay-Varina clinched the conference championship and an undefeated season in the Tri-Eight, the Bengals forced Cary into a draw to determine its own postseason fate.

Fuquay-Varina and its pound-it-out running attack saw Corey Hunter rack up 139 yards rushing to run away from Cary in a 37-14 win Friday night, sealing up a home matchup next week in the first round of the state playoffs.

"It should put us as a number-one or two seed and we'll see how that works out over the weekend," Fuquay coach Ryan Habich said. "We're ready to play whoever -- a big 4-A or a small 4-A. It doesn't matter to us."

The Bengals rode the same attack it had all season -- running hard on the ground -- which opened up the Fuquay passing game.

"We've been running tough all year and when you're running consistently and the offensive line is opening up holes, the passing game will open up," Habich said.

Habich saw deficiencies though that need to be worked out before the playoffs start. The Bengals' starting kicker has suffered from an ankle injury and Habich was forced to play his quarterback as kicker. That meant a lot of missed extra points.

"There are some mistakes that we're making that we're not going to be able to make against those top playoff teams," Habich said.

For Cary, coach Ben Kolstad saw the loss to Fuquay as a frustrating loss after such an emotional win last week over Panther Creek.

"We caught some breaks tonight and didn't capitalize on them and that's kind of been the story of our season," Kolstad said. "And when you're playing a team that takes advantage of every drive, you can't make those mistakes."

Kolstad said he hopes Cary gets another chance in the playoffs -- not for him, but for his players that have worked so hard.

"They don't deserve to end the season like this so I hope we have a chance to kind of revenge this loss," he said.

Kolstad found out after the game that his playoff fate would be determined by a coin flip, and said he's never been in a situation like this before.

"I'm trying not to think about it right now and let it work itself out," he said. "So we'll see what happens."