Catholic (Baton Rouge) nose tackle TarJon Dearbone, linebacker Maxwell Maurer, safety Blaine Bradford and company swallowed up a Central fourth-down run in the middle of the third quarter before it could get back to the line of scrimmage.
And four plays later, quarterback Turner Goldsmith hit tight end Jude Chamberlain for a fourth-down gadget play turned 32-yard touchdown.
The sequence both helped blow open the pivotal District 4-5A battle and epitomize the Bears’ fourth-down effectiveness that was a running theme in their eventual 57-28 victory — from an early Jayden Miles touchdown run to four defensive stands in the second half alone and a handful overall.
“What we tell each other is D.Y.J. — Do Your Job, and everything else works itself out,” Dearbone said. “Eleven guys doing their job means the play’s over, the play’s stopped. We get a stop. That’s it. And, yeah, honestly we were really confident in each other, and really I’m just really happy that everything worked out.”
Catholic (5-2, 2-0) had fallen short in a pair of heartbreakers to West Monroe and Madison-Ridgeland Academy (Miss.) to wrap up a gauntlet of a pre-district schedule.
And a 38-16 victory — tighter than in recent years — in Week 6 against a Liberty Magnet more improved than many around the state had yet realized may not have fully extinguished some lingering anxieties.
But an emphatic road win against reigning Division-I Non-Select champion Central in which the Bears led wire-to-wire and blew things open in the second half marked their biggest flex in a month, if not to date.
“We don’t schedule for things to be easy,” coach Hudson Fuller said. “And at the end of the day, those two games (West Monroe and MRA) are one-play games, both of ’em, but they made us look in the mirror and really look at, ‘Alright, hey, deep down what are some things we can really fix and improve on?’ when we were doing a lot of things really well. But, to me, that moment created just a big sense of urgency from our team and just kind of a wake-up call that our culture is something that we’re proud of and it means a lot to us, but we’ve got to fight for it every day.”
The Catholic defense was swarming and tone-setting early with Dearbone — aptly nicknamed “Tank” — anchoring the front and Bradford, Maurer, Jayden Vessell, John Russell DeMoss, Harrison Kidder and flying around from their respective positions.
A big Goldsmith-to-Chamberlain play early helped set up an eventual fourth-and-short wildcat opportunity for Miles, who busted 8 yards up the middle and over an attempted tackler for the 7-0 lead and immediate message.
Miles went on to a pair of rushing touchdowns and a receiving touchdown on a long screen-and-run to lead the Bears’ eight-touchdown performance.
Goldsmith and Chamberlain linked up for another explosive play on the first play of the second quarter, this time a 40-yard touchdown for a 13-0 lead on the first of the duo’s two scoring connections and Goldsmith’s four touchdowns in all.
A fourth-down snap miscue ended the Wildcats’ ensuing possession, and Goldsmith got the ball to Miles for the 50-yard dash to stretch the advantage to 19-0.
“The motto for this week was set the tone,” Miles said. “We wanted to come in straight on business. We had a couple of (ups and downs) here and there the last couple of games, but I think we shook back, and we’re just gonna continue to work. We had some small things we’ve got to fix. But we’re gonna get that Sunday, and we’re gonna keep on going.”
Central finally found its spark with a big swing in the middle of the second quarter.
Beau Hill and Marvin Joseph Jr. blanketed Chamberlain in the end zone for a fourth-down stop, and then quarterback JaCori Platt lofted a ball downfield that senior receiver Keithon Womack hauled in and headed off to the races for the 94-yard strike.
The Wildcats held Catholic to a long Tanner Forbes field goal on its next possession, then pieced together a two-minute drill on which Max Gassiott hit Shane Brown for a touchdown on a final, untimed play before halftime to pull within a single score, 22-14.
Catholic started the third quarter with a scoring drive on which Goldsmith found Beau Thomas for a run up the sideline and a 29-14 lead.
And the Bears began racking up fourth-down stops with regularity from there and creating distance.
“Honestly, what ended up happening was a lot of the leaders on the team, they just talked with coach Fuller, and it was kind of a reset moment in the middle of the season,” Dearbone said. “And after that, things just started to work out. We all got our priorities straight. We all got what we wanted to do, what we wanted out of the season together, and we told each other wanted. And everything else just came along after that, and team chemistry is up at an all-time high.”
Following the second Goldsmith-to-Chamberlain score and Miles touchdown run, both Lamond Robinson and Gregory Williams Jr. found the end zone as well.
“Man, we’re brothers,” said Miles, who was among the first Bears out from the sideline to celebrate with Robinson and Williams. “We like doing it. (The deep backfield) is something that we like a lot. Going into the season we knew it was gonna be like that. And I just think in my opinion that we are the best running back group in Louisiana.”
Brown housed a kick 98 yards in the third quarter, but the rare second-half highlight for the Wildcats only briefly pulled them back within 36-21.
And Central wouldn’t score again until junior running back Tristan Rose broke an 87-yard dash in the final minutes.