NEW BERN - Kevin Reddick came up big when it mattered for New Bern.

The touted senior linebacker scored the winning touchdown on a 1-yard run as time expired, and New Bern came from behind for a 40-38 victory over Millbrook in the third round of the N.C. High School Association 4-AA playoffs.

"We just ran out of time," said Millbrook coach Clarence Inscore. "It's just a shame anybody's got to lose a game played that well."

Millbrook that rallied from a 27-17 deficit with just more than nine minutes left in the game.

The Wildcats pulled within three points, when quarterback Brian Kass hit Jamal Williams for a 24-yard pass, setting up a Kuwan Eldridge's 3-yard touchdown run on the following play.

And then, with just more than five minutes left, Inscore went for an onside kick, and the Wildcats recovered it on their own 47.

"I knew they were going to do that," New Bern coach Bobby Curlings said. "We practiced for it all week."

After a false-start penalty, Kass hit Scott Gray with a 58-yard touchdown pass, and the Wildcats went up 31-27 with 5:17 left.

But Bears freshman backup quarterback Terrell Lindsey broke some tackles on the ensuing kickoff and returned it 75 yards for a score, giving New Bern a 34-31 lead with 5:03 left.

Kass threw his third interception (the first was returned for a 20-yard touchdown by Reddick in the third quarter) at the Wildcats' 38.

"He's a player," Inscore said of Reddick. "We saw him on film and knew he was going to be a big player, and he didn't disappoint."

Four plays after the interception, the Bears went for it on fourth-and-5, but quarterback Brett Williams was sacked.

It gave the Wildcats the ball back at their own 45, and Kass, who led Millbrook rushing with 136 yards on 13 carries, came up with a 28-yard run.

Eldridge, who gained 116 yards on 21 carries, followed Kass' run with a 28-yard run of his own, driving to the 1-yard line, where he finished off the drive on the next play with a TD run that gave Millbrook a 38-34 lead with 39 seconds left in the game.

From their own 35, the Bears drove, starting with a 25-yard pass from Williams to Demarcus Howell, who used the sidelines to stop the clock with 26 seconds remaining.

Lindsey followed that with a 22-yard run. Two plays later, Williams hit Howell again, striding out-of-bounds, on a 17-yard pass to the 1-yard line.

That set up Reddick's 1-yard run as time expired.

"We showed that we could play football, and I'm just proud of my team right now," Inscore said.