FREEPORT — Freeport built a 26-11 fourth-quarter cushion and was rolling to a playoff victory — until Ellwood City pulled out all the stops.

Two trick plays sparked the Wolverines to 22 unanswered points in the final 9 minutes, 18 seconds — capped by a 1-yard quarterback sneak from Julian Cox with 22 seconds remaining — and Ellwood City stunned the Yellowjackets 33-26 in the first round of the WPIAL Class AA football playoffs.

“Our kids don't quit. They don't quit,” said Ellwood City coach Don Phillips. “They're going to fight until the horn goes off.”

For a young Freeport squad — which made an unexpected run to an Allegheny Conference co-championship — it was a bitter end to a successful campaign.

“Things happen,” said Freeport coach John Gaillot. “I cannot be more proud of the group of young men that I have.

“I tip my hat to them.”

Ellwood City stole momentum with a 72-yard reverse pass and never let go.

Kyle Crawford took a pitch to the left and gave a handoff to Jared Meyers. He pulled up and fired a pass downfield in the direction of a double-covered Nick Polka.

The Yellowjackets (7-3) appeared to have the pass lined up for an interception until Polka snared the ball away, raced from the defenders and into the end zone.

“That was the most amazing feeling,” said Polka. “We needed the momentum, so I had to catch that ball.

“That changed the whole game,” Polka added. “They didn't know what to do after that.”

Gaillot also believed the Polka touchdown was the turning point.

“It was the momentum change that was the big thing,” said the Freeport coach. “We were cruising there for a while, then we missed the pick and the kid caught it. It was a big factor, but we still have to respond.”

The play put Freeport on its heels, though, and the Yellowjackets failed to get back on track.

On the ensuing possession, Seth Mley picked off Brendan Lynch on a third-and-8 and gave Ellwood City (7-3) the ball at the EC 45-yard line.

Two plays later, the Wolverines again reached into their bag of tricks.

Alexander Grymes appeared to run off the field for a substitute, but stayed inbounds near the EC sideline and managed to go unnoticed by the Freeport defense.

Julian Cox quickly hit Grymes, who picked up 46 yards until he was dragged down at the Freeport 6.

“It's in my pocket,” said Phillips of the disguised sideline pass. “I don't use it until I know it's there or we need it.”

Cox finished the drive with a 3-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Crawford and kicker Scott Lewis tied the game at 26 with 6:03 to play.

Freeport went backwards on the next drive and ended up with a fourth-and-31 from its own 10 and was forced to punt.

Ellwood City took over with 3:21 to go and marched 53 yards to the end zone on 10 plays.

The key play was a third-and-6 from the Freeport 24. Crawford ran left, found a seam and nearly scored as he dove and went flipping toward the pylon. Cox punched it in on the next snap.

Freeport had just 16 seconds to cover 61 yards after the kickoff. Lynch found Sean Carson for a 16-yard gain, but the following play turned into a series of laterals that resulted in a 22-yard loss and cued Ellwood City's players and fans to storm the field in celebration.

“The kids hung in there,” said Phillips. “They were resilient.”

Freeport ended the game in misery, but it couldn't have started much better.

Lynch — who finished with 153 rushing yards on eight carries — took the first play from scrimmage 75 yards for a touchdown.

After Lewis booted a 32-yard field goal for Ellwood City, Lynch plunged in for his second score on a 1-yard sneak to make it 13-3 Freeport after one quarter.

Damon Smith — who led all rushers with 172 yards on 29 totes — picked off Cox on the first play of the second quarter and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown to boost the Freeport advantage to 19-3.

“Man, can that (Smith) kid play,” said Phillips. “He is one tremendous player. I congratulated him on a nice game. I said, ‘I understand you're a junior, aren't you? ... You'll be back, kid.'

“He can play for anybody,” added Phillips. “He's a good one.”

Ellwood City responded on a 13-yard TD run from Cox and trimmed the Yellowjackets' lead to 19-11 at the half.

Lynch, a junior, again brought Freeport fans to their feet with a 65-yard scoring scamper in the third to make it 26-11.

However, Ellwood City turned the tables in the fourth.

“We had to pull out all the stops,” said Phillips. “I'm not ready to clean out my gutters and do yard work.

“We have some things in our pocket that we can come back to,” Phillips added. “Fortunately, it worked out for us tonight.”

The Yellowjackets will hope to learn from the disappointing experience.

“That's just being young,” said Gaillot. “We'll rebound next year and come out fighting like we did this year.”