St. Frances senior Jordan Swann wasn't sure how he would celebrate his No. 1 Panthers football team finishing undefeated in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference. He just knew the celebration would last awhile.

“We're going to celebrate all week. This is a big historic event for the school,” the cornerback said.

With Saturday's 34-20 win over No. 6 Mount Saint Joseph, the Panthers earned their first A Conference championship, completing a 6-0 run that comes just a year after they went winless in the conference.

Gary Brightwell ran for four touchdowns, Swann had two interceptions and a touchdown reception, and Sam Thomas had a game-changing strip and a 55-yard run that proved the catalyst for three consecutive St. Frances touchdowns.

This Panthers team, rebuilt under the tutelage of first-year coach Henry Russell and much of last year's Gilman staff, brought in a lot of talent, but it knew it would take more than that to contend for the A Conference title.

“Going into the season,” Swann said, “we knew the talent we had. The goal was just coming together as a team.”

Russell said the players might have been the only ones who believed that St. Frances (10-1) could win the championship.

“I'm so happy for the kids,” Russell said. “This is one of the toughest conferences in the country. There's no doubt about it. Every week there's no down team, so there's no room for error, and to go undefeated through league play is amazing. … We're really happy to bring a football championship to St. Frances, East Baltimore.”

The Panthers had clinched at least a share of the title last week when they defeated Archbishop Spalding, 32-29, and wrested the No. 1 ranking from the Cavaliers. While the other six A Conference teams have one game remaining, St. Frances did not have a bye and completed its conference season at Mount Saint Joseph.

The Gaels (7-3, 3-2) could have forced a tie for the championship with a win. That would have tied the Panthers with the winner of Friday's Mount Saint Joseph-Spalding game.

But the Panthers began to break open a tight game late in the first half. Leading 15-13, Thomas, a senior linebacker, came up with the play that would spark the Panthers offense.

On the tackle, Thomas stripped the ball from the Gaels ball carrier and raced 55 yards to the 2-yard line. Brightwell, a senior running back, finished it off with the 2-yard run for a 21-13 halftime lead.

St. Frances' defense led the way with several sacks in addition to forcing three turnovers.

“It seemed like we made one mistake on each drive that kind of set us off schedule,” Gaels coach Rich Holzer said. “I was proud of the kids because they marched the ball down to their end of the field just about every drive, but it was the one play where we'd get sacked for a 5-yard loss, stuff like that. We just had trouble overcoming that.”

katherine.dunn@baltsun.com

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