{"id":30001,"date":"2025-10-11T11:18:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T15:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=30001"},"modified":"2025-10-12T11:49:04","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T15:49:04","slug":"freshman-weber-steps-in-to-lead-patriots-to-victory-in-first-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/11\/freshman-weber-steps-in-to-lead-patriots-to-victory-in-first-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Weber steps in to lead Patriots to victory in first start"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DANE FUELLING<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week after being thrust into the spotlight of the quarterback role amidst a season-altering injury to the team’s best player, freshman Ethan Weber had a week of practice as QB1 to prepare for his first start on the road at Southern Wells. The ninth grader showed his talents, guiding the Patriots to a 42-7 victory while throwing for three touchdowns and making every throw he was asked to make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nolan Bowers and Brady Boyle prepare to hold the Southern Wells Raiders and hand the ball back over to the offense. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Weber finished 9 of 10 for 160 yards and his only incompletion was a drop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Brady Boyle, Jake Krauss and Jax Litchfield took care of the running game in the absence of Lucas Weber, who was knocked out last week against Bluffton in the opening quarter. Boyle also had an interception with a 58-yard return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Krauss led the Patriots in rushing yards with 84, while Boyle was right behind him with 78. Litchfield had 37 yards on just six carries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Heritage defense gave up a touchdown early, but they held the Raiders scoreless after the first quarter to move the team’s record to 5-3. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The highlight of the night was a 50-yard touchdown pass by Ethan Weber to Lantae Cassel. Cassel had two catches and both went for touchdowns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Proud to sponsor Heritage Athletics on WZBD.com!<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Max Mirelez also had a touchdown catch for the Patriots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Senior DT Wyatt Bertsch and sophomore OLB Nolan Bowers are shown on the pass rush from the Heritage left side against Southern Wells Friday. The Patriots held Trey Slusher to just 2 of 18 passing for 36 yards. (Photo by Patrick Gunsett)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The absence of Lucas Weber was evident even on the Patriots’ PAT tries. While he is best known for his ability to pick up yards on the ground (186 against Woodlan, 162 against AC, 212 against Tipton), he’s also the team’s kicker. He was 18 of 19 on PAT tries heading into last week’s game against Bluffton and even had a field goal in the win over Tipton. Brady Boyle converted three two-point tries on the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Patriots are hopeful that they will have Lucas Weber back for their regular season finale at Jay County. That game can be heard live on WPGW Radio, our sister station. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANE FUELLING WZBD.com A week after being thrust into the spotlight of the quarterback role amidst a season-altering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,54,51,26],"class_list":["post-30001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-featured","tag-football","tag-heritage","tag-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC03193-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1443&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30005,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30001\/revisions\/30005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}