APEX — Apex coach Bob Wolfe hastened to note what a difference Millbrook’s Jamal Williams made.

In the first minute of Saturday’s fourth quarter, the versatile Williams eluded a swarming Cougars kickoff unit poised to pin Williams inside the Wildcats’ 20-yard line. Williams, instead, found his way down the right sideline to the Apex 25. From there, Brian Kass quarterbacked a six-play, two and a half-minute-plus drive, capped by the signal caller’s 8-yard run up the middle for the game-winning touchdown as Millbrook prevailed 28-25.

“If they had been stuck back there, if we had done that,” Wolfe said, “it would have been a different story – probably. Other than that, our defense played pretty well.”

The Cougars limited the Wildcats to 220 total yards, including 105 rushing on 33 carries. Parker Wilson intercepted two Kass passes.

Apex, meanwhile, put forth its own balanced attack with 257 yards, 141 though the air by quarterback Houston Hawley. Hawley (8 for 19), whose 2-yard scamper to the end zone with 11:44 to play, set up the Cougars to take a 25-21 lead, connected with Kevin Fogg for his lone passing touchdown and an 18-14 advantage 2:29 after the break.

Fogg caught a short pass in the right slot before breaking wide to the sideline for 34 yards to the goal line. Fogg’s two-point conversion just before the second stanza expired followed a 2-yard touchdown run off right tackle by Sio Moore that helped Apex build a 14-11 lead.

“He’s not the only one they’ve got,” Millbrook coach Clarence Inscore said of Fogg. “You can call ‘Seven [Fogg],’ ‘Three [Moore],’ or ‘Nine [David Carr].’ You’ve got three legitimate weapons,” Inscore continued. “The quarterback hurt us a few times tonight, too, on the option. You can always expect a battle every time you face them.”

Kass and his fellow Wildcats, however, battled back, beginning with the quarterback’s 5-yard run left of center for a touchdown at the second quarter’s 9:35 mark.

Apex (2-2) scored first on Stephen Weiss’ 26-yard opening period field goal.

Kass (7-16) connected with Garrett Redmond for a 25-yard touchdown with 3:50 left – and a 14-3 lead – before intermission. Kuwon Eldridge’s 5-yard touchdown run put Millbrook ahead 21-18 with 45.4 seconds remaining in the third quarter.

“I was disappointed in some of our mistakes that we made. That’s for sure,” Wolfe said. “But I was also very pleased in the fact the way the game went back and forth.”

The Cougars yielded 70 yards on seven penalties, including 30 on two personal fouls on Millbrook’s first scoring drive.

Apex’s final drive (which began inside of five minutes left at the Cougars’ 7-yard line) was diffused by Salieu Thomas’ interception.

The Wildcats improved to 4-1 for the first time since 2001, Inscore’s inaugural season at his alma mater.