Catholic High junior quarterback Camden Estep tossed five touchdown passes and the Bears won the turnover margin 4-0 Friday night as Catholic defeated Central 41-14 at Memorial Stadium.

Catholic (5-3, 2-0 in District 4-5A) raced to a 27-0 lead by scoring on four of its first five possessions. Central (3-4, 0-2) drove 80 yards in four plays with quarterback Max Gassiott tossing a 21-yard scoring pass to Marcus Watson with 12 seconds left in the second quarter to cut the Catholic lead to 27-7 at the half.

Each team scored a touchdown in the third quarter. Catholic added the final score, a 6-yard toss from Estep to Dyer Chambers, with 2:13 remaining in the game.

Central's final drive ended on the first play with a fumble. Catholic's Lanza Cooper had the hit, and Lovic Alonzo recovered the fumble. Also recovering fumbles for Catholic were Jayden Vessell and Justin Batiste. Catholic's Carson Rice had an interception with 8:27 left in the game that set up Catholic's 75-yard, 13-play drive for the final margin.

"I was really proud of our defense," Catholic coach Hudson Fuller said. "We've gotten better every week and forcing four turnovers was great. On offense, we were able to spread the ball around and sustain drives. We had some explosive plays on offense."

"Catholic did a good job on defense," Central coach David Simoneaux said. "We moved the ball well at times, but we just couldn't finish drives or hold onto the ball. We played better defense in the second half by giving up 14 points. I like the way we defended Catholic's running game."

Estep completed all five of his passes for 34 yards in Catholic's first series that covered 64 yards in 14 plays. Chambers scored on a 4-yard pass from Estep to put the Bears up 7-0 with 4:29 left in the first quarter.

Central's defense forced the Bears to punt on their second series. The Wildcats picked up a first down, but a bad snap resulted in a fumble that Vessell recovered at the Central 23-yard line.

After an illegal motion penalty, Catholic needed just two plays to score. Estep tossed a 26-yard TD to tight end Jude Chamberlain for a 14-0 lead with 8:07 left in the second quarter. Catholic drove 49 yards in five plays with Jayden Miles scoring on a 9-yard run for a 20-0 lead with 4:46 left in the second quarter.

Batiste ended Central's next series with a fumble recovery. Catholic drove 51 yards in seven plays. Estep tossed a 15-yard TD to Jordan Culotta with 1:13 left in the second quarter for a 27-0 lead.

Gassiott tossed a 57-yard pass to Brody Diel to help set up its score at the end of the half.

Estep completed 18 of 23 passes for 210 yards. Chambers had five catches for 24 yards, Chamberlain had three catches for 56 yards, Culotta had three catches for 63 yards and Jaden Moffitt had three catches for 42 yards. Moffitt scored on a 32-yard reception with 8:43 left in the third quarter. Miles rushed 19 times for 94 yards.

Gassiott rushed 11 times for 71 yards and completed 17 of 26 passes for 203 yards with two TDs and an interception. Gassiott passed for 6 yards to Diel for a third-quarter TD. Diel had seven catches for 109 yards. Watson had four catches for 54 yards and caught his ninth TD pass of the season.

Catholic won its fourth straight game.