It was more than just a spectacular diving touchdown catch in a big game, on a massive high school football stage in Fort Worth, Texas, Saturday night.

For St. Frances senior wide receiver Mekhi Workman it was a tribute of the highest honor for his father, Anthony Workman, a captain in the Baltimore City Fire Department, who died Friday morning from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash last Wednesday.

St. Frances traveled to Fort Worth to challenge Texas power DeSoto as part of the Panthers’ season-long trek across the nation. The nationally ranked Panthers, playing the nation’s most difficult schedule, will travel more than 17,000 miles roundtrip this fall, in a quest to earn a national championship and they are now 2-0 after Saturday’s 47-7 thrashing of DeSoto.

That result pales in comparison to the individual courage and effort of Workman. On Friday, the same day the St. Frances football team traveled to Texas, Workman’s father, Anthony Workman, a captain with the Baltimore City Fire Department, succumbed to injuries he sustained in a motorcycle crash last Wednesday.

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The emotions of the evening were heightened when game organizers held a moment of silence in honor of Workman’s father, prior to kickoff. St. Frances fell behind, 7-0, in the opening minute of the contest before responding with 47 unanswered points. Six of those points came early in the second quarter when a heavily covered Workman burst past his defenders and hauled in a 20-yard touchdown reception, from quarterback Michael Van Buren, with an all-out, sprawling dive.

Workman, who finished the game with five catches for 77 yards, knelt and bowed his head in the end zone, immediately after the catch, and then pointed to the heavens. Following the game, he tweeted out a few different replays of the catch with comments such as, “This is for you pops!,” and “Just the beginning,” and “I love you pops!”

Anthony Workman, who was 45, was also a member of the National Guard and member of the fire department’s honor guard.

“This is an amazing public service professional,” Baltimore City Fire Chief Niles Ford told WBAL Television on Friday. He was a mentor to many, many people in this organization. I told his father that he meets the definition of what my mother always hope I would be, which is a gentleman.”