When it comes to winning games, no coach in WPIAL history has more memories to scroll through -- 351 -- than Upper St. Clair's Jim Render.

So when Render called the latest triumph one of the best he has ever been a part of, you know there was quite a bit of significance behind it.

Dakota Conwell rushed for 276 yards and three touchdowns to lead host Upper St. Clair to its first conference championship since 2006 after coasting to a 42-6 victory Friday night against archrival Mt. Lebanon.

"Me personally, I was extremely happy for the players," Render said. "We haven't won a conference championship since 2006. Too much is made about how many victories I have. I would trade them all to relive [Friday night]. [Friday night] was wonderful."

With the WPIAL Class AAAA Great Southern Conference title on the line, Upper St. Clair (8-1) prevailed against the Blue Devils (6-3) in a game matching teams that were 4-0 in conference play coming into the contest.

It was a role reversal from last season when the Blue Devils gained the championship by storming back from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to stun the Panthers, 14-10, thus defeating them for the first time in seven tries.

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"The whole week, the motto was revenge," Conwell said. "We had a clock ticking down since last year's game. We had a salty taste last year and we came out fired up [Friday night]."

Conwell showed it by putting forth one of the finest games of his career. Conwell is expected to play linebacker at Pitt, but against Mt. Lebanon, his offensive talents from the quarterback position came to the forefront.

Conwell doesn't put the ball in the air very much -- he finished 2 of 5 for 29 yards -- but with the way he runs to the ball, there's no need to throw. Conwell scored on second-quarter runs of 2, 26 and 51 yards to vault the Panthers to a 28-0 lead. After rushing for 152 yards on 16 carries in the first half, Conwell went for 124 on nine carries in the second half, including an 84-yard run early in the fourth quarter in which he was tackled at the Mt. Lebanon 1.

"He's probably the most underrated player in the WPIAL," Render said. "We don't overuse him. [Friday night] we wanted to use him and he demonstrated what he's really capable of."

Zach Deitrick added two rushing touchdowns for the Panthers, who forced the mercy rule to go into effect when Austin Stephan followed Conwell's long run with a 1-yard touchdown run with 10:57 left.

The Upper St. Clair defense, as it has been most of the season, was a rock. The Panthers came into the game with five shutouts on their resume -- including back-to-back 55-0 blowouts the previous two weeks -- and they nearly pitched a sixth one against Mt. Lebanon.

The Panthers forced the Blue Devils to punt on all but two of their possessions -- one coming as time expired -- and did a fine job of keeping Blue Devils star Luke Hagy in check. Hagy rushed for 128 yards on 21 carries, but only had three runs longer than 10 yards, and only 35 yards in the second half.

"There were a lot of plays where he squeezed through where he shouldn't have, so we obviously have some things to work on" Upper St. Clair defensive tackle Jake Radziukanas said. "Our linebacking corps is pretty good, and when our defensive line plays hard, we're a force to be reckoned with."