Daniel Boone dealing with loss of quarterback Carter Speyerer, who’s out for the season

Carter Speyerer spent the past eight months taking every opportunity he could find to become a better quarterback for his final season at Daniel Boone.

That season lasted just a handful of plays.

The 6-foot, 190-pound senior was injured on his second run of the night, suffered a broken ankle and will miss the remainder of the season.

He is scheduled to have surgery on his right ankle Thursday afternoon.

“He’s one of toughest kids I’ve ever coached,” said Boone coach Rob Flowers. “He doesn’t go down. We knew right away that it was something serious.”

Sophomore Dean Rotter replaced him in the first quarter and finished what became a 41-14 loss to Wyomissing.

The injury is devastating both to Speyerer, who was eager to show college coaches what he can do, and to the Blazers, who geared their offense around his considerable running and passing skills.

“It takes away or No. 1 leader,” Flowers said. “The guys loves Carter, Carter loves the guys, so you have to deal with that emotion, and that’s not even talking football.

“It changes locker room, it changes the field, it changes the attitude in the mindset of the guys. Schematically, it changes some things because of what he brings to the table. But, considering how old our guys are and what we’ve been through we’re gonna be able to recover together.”

The Blazers were looking at a bounce-back season after finishing 2-6 and tied a lot of those hopes to the talents of Speyerer, who was also a starting defensive back.

He didn’t put up huge numbers as a junior — 945 passing yards with seven TD passes and a 45.0 completion rate — but he had shown the physical skills and capability to do more.

Now the offense will rest on the shoulders of the 5-11, 162-pound Rotter, who saw his first varsity action last week.

“Dean Rotter’s a student of the game,” Flowers said. “After this summer, after camp, after our scrimmage, I made it a point to let him know he’s a very important person to our football program.

“Dean Rotter’s the best No. 2 we’ve ever coached just because he’s a student of the game. And he cares about being a student of the game. That’s going to help him be calm, be successful within our football program.

“But he’s still a young sophomores. We’re just gonna do things that are favorable to him. So the guys around him are going to help us have a successful year.”

Rotter’s more a pocket passer, Flowers said, and won’t bring the running threat that made Speyerer so dangerous.

Speyerer worked with Manheim trainer Darryl Daniel in the offseason to improve his speed and agility, and with Lebanon Valley offensive coordinator Chris Thompson, a former quarterback at Bloomsburg, to clean up his footwork.

He went to camps or took part in 7-on-7 competitions at Penn State, Villanova, Temple, Sacred Heart, Kutztown, Bloomsburg, Lebanon Valley and other schools.

He attended more than half-a-dozen prospect camps and was named offensive MVP at several of them, including the Maryland/Delaware Elite Prospects Camp, where has named the top quarterback from Pennsylvania.

At the Elite11 camp in April he was ranked the No. 10 quarterback and joined Central York’s Beau Pribula (a Penn State recruit) and Central Dauphin’s Max Mosey as the only Pennsylvanians in the Top 10.

Earlier this week he received his first offers, from Alvernia and Wilkes.

Flowers said seeing Speyerer leave the field Friday was an emotional moment for all sides.

“He had tears knowing he wasn’t going to be able to play this year,” he said. “Some other guys had tears.

It’s tough, you have a guy you’ve been playing with your whole high school career and he can’t play his senior year, that’s a tough one to swallow.”