Polk County is going to the state 1A football playoffs.

The Wolverines earned an at-large berth in seedings announced Saturday by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. Polk County is the 11th seed in the 1AA West bracket and will travel Friday to face sixth-seeded East Wilkes in first-round action.

Forty-eight of 73 1A football-playing schools earned playoff berths. The NCHSAA uses a combination of automatic qualifiers and wild cards to fill those 48 spots, with a computer-based ranking done by MaxPreps used to select the at-large qualifiers.

Polk County (3-8) finished the season ranked 40th among 1A schools in the Adjusted MaxPreps Rating, which removes margin of victory from its formula and differs from the ratings seen on MaxPreps.

East Wilkes wrapped up a 7-4 season with a 55-26 loss to Wilkes Central on Nov. 2. The Cardinals are led by quarterback Caedan Howell, wide receiver/defensive back Sean Sidden and running back Jayeon Ross. East Wilkes head coach Jonathan Wilmoth is in his first season at the school, having served as an assistant last year at Mount Airy.

The winner of the first-round game will travel to North Rowan (9-2) in the second round.

Complete playoff brackets can be found on the NCHSAA website, nchsaa.org.

– Submitted by PolkSports.com