Prep football: Injuries pile up, but backup QB helps Syracuse outscore Weber 50-37
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- Syracuse High receiver Bo Metcalfe (1) tries to outrun Weber linebacker Andrew Messerly (19) during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Weber High receiver Creed Devries, right, stiff-arms Syracuse defender Bryson Hall (16) during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Syracuse High receiver Parker Moffat catches a touchdown pass against Weber during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Weber High running back Wyatt Nielsen, center, finds a gap past Syracuse defender Jack Benoit (30) during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Syracuse High running back Kao Prom, center, plows through Weber High defenders and into the end zone for a touchdown during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Weber High quarterback Carter Payne rears back to pass against Syracuse during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Syracuse High running back Kao Prom, center, fights contact from a Weber defender during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Weber High running back Owen Johnson returns a Syracuse kickoff during a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- The Syracuse High football team takes the field to face Weber in a Region 1 football game on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, in Syracuse. (TRE ASAY, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
SYRACUSE — When Syracuse running back Kao Prom left Friday’s Region 1 game against Weber midway through the third quarter with cramps, all of the Titan offense was on the bench.
Syracuse led 29-15, behind two touchdown passes from quarterback Ledger Wight, before he exited with a lower left-leg injury with 9:31 remaining in the third period, and Prom followed one possession later at the 6:54 mark.
Enter No. 3, Syracuse junior quarterback Carson Lake, who took two snaps after Wight went out, and the Titans turned the ball over on downs.
“Honestly, it was kind of surprising that Ledge went down, but I knew I had to prepare and be ready for it,” Lake said. “I think when I first went in, I was like real nervous, being my first time at quarterback for varsity.”
Weber scored after the Syracuse turnover on downs (bringing it to 29-15) and Prom was sidelined on the ensuing kickoff return.
Lake was such an unknown that Stan Tulane (Syracuse coach Mitch Tulane’s brother), the video coordinator for the Titans, did not know who he was.
It didn’t take Lake long to make a name for himself.
“Once that adrenaline kicked in, I started having fun. Coaches prepared me during practice. Those extra reps helped me a lot,” Lake said.
The Titans began with the ball at their own 15, and nine plays later, Lake raced 16 yards for a touchdown and a 36-15 lead.
“I was so excited. It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever been through. I’d played wide receiver on our JV team, and then our JV quarterback got hurt, so I stepped in at JV quarterback, and now I’m here playing on Friday night,” Lake said. “I played against Weber JV yesterday (Thursday). We did awesome. We won 48-12. I had four passing touchdowns.”
Syracuse and Weber traded touchdowns on seven straight possessions during a wild second half, but Weber never got closer than two scores and the Titans took a mind-blowing, 50-37 victory.
Five touchdowns came in a rapid-fire fourth quarter, making the scores 36-21, 43-21, 43-29, 50-29, and finally 50-37.
Hidden in the numbers, as Weber scored five touchdowns, are five touchdown passes by quarterback Carter Payne and five touchdown catches for wide receiver Creed DeVries.
“I mean it’s crazy. That whole second half felt like Carter was putting the ball only where I could get it; beautiful throws every time,” DeVries said. “We saw the mismatches. Not a lot of teams have covered me one-on-one this year, so I felt we took advantage of that.
“We knew coming in we had a good game plan. We could attack them with our pass game. It turned out that way tonight,” DeVries said.
Lake added his first varsity touchdown pass in the fourth quarter on a 22-yarder to Parker Moffat with 9:49 left, making it 43-21.
“That was awesome. A good catch by Parker Moffat there,” Lake said. “I feel like I could have put a better ball out there, but it worked out.”
Moffat also caught a 17-yard TD pass late in the first quarter for one of Wight’s two touchdown passes.
That catch capped a 13-play drive which took 6:37 off the clock, for the initial touchdown of the game late in the first quarter, which belied the scoring carnage to come.
Wight’s other touchdown toss was a 38-yarder to a wide-open Bo Metcalfe in the closing seconds of the second stanza.
Prom returned from his cramps in the fourth quarter and scored on a 25-yard run with 8:46 to play (50-29), for a three-touchdown game, coupled with a pair of 1-yarders in the first half.
“It was power right, and I stayed very patient. The linebackers overcommitted, and there was a cutback lane to the left; I hit the gap really hard and had an open crease,” Prom said. “The O-line blocked good; we were playing really well up front.
“Defensively we struggled with the deep ball and the deep shots, and struggled to contain the quarterback; big plays after big plays,” Prom said.
Syracuse (4-4, 2-1 Region 1) led 29-0 in the first half, but DeVries and Payne connected on an 84-yard touchdown with 30.9 seconds left, when everyone might have expected the Warriors to take a knee and go into the locker room to lick their wounds.
Weber (4-4, 1-2) outscored Syracuse 29-21 in the second half and still had 5:59 remaining when Payne and DeVries closed the gap to 50-37 on a 17-yard strike, which means the five fourth-quarter touchdowns came in the first 6:01 of the period.
“(Coach) Mo (Cannon) has always taught us to give your all until the last whistle blows. He doesn’t care what the score is,” DeVries said. “We just kept fighting and found a way to get back into the game and make it interesting.”
Bob Judson has covered high school sports for the Standard-Examiner for 51 years.
