BATON ROUGE – The Alexandria Senior High Trojans were on top at halftime Friday night in their Select Division I state quarterfinal playoff game against Catholic High, but the fourth-seeded Bears roared to life.

Catholic scored 41 unanswered points, 27 in the pivotal third quarter, to post a 44-6 victory that ended the Trojans’ season.

Catholic scored on five straight possessions after halftime, erasing a 6-3 deficit as it cashed in on ASH turnovers to blow open the game. Trojans’ coach Thomas Bachman told William Weathers of the Baton Rouge Advocate that as the Bears went on a tear, and forced mistakes,  the visitors couldn’t recover.

“The dam broke on us in the third quarter, and it created some separation, and you get to pressing and you’ve got to take it one play at a time,” said Bachman, whose fifth-seeded team finished 9-4. “We didn’t really make enough plays to threaten them when they got that two-score lead and it kind of separated. Credit to them.”

The Trojans’ defense was tough in the first two quarters, forcing a pair of fumbles and shutting out Catholic until the last play of the half.

Eli Fung kicked a 21-yard field goal for a 3-0 ASH lead. Fung knocked through a 27-yarder for a 6-0 advantage with 1:38 left in the half, but it came after the Trojans had first down at the Bears’ 3-yard line and could not get into the end zone.

ASH was the last Rapides Parish team left in the LHSAA postseason.