Mars senior Eric Kasperowicz drops back to throw a pass at the Planets’ practice on Tuesday. Kasperowicz will help fill in for injured starter Luke Goodworth when his team takes on Montour on Friday. Brendan Howe/Butler Eagle

ADAMS TWP — Eric Kasperowicz didn’t think his path would circle back.

For the immediate future, however, he can label himself what he’d been in a previous life — a quarterback.

Mars starting signal-caller Luke Goodworth is sidelined with a shoulder injury suffered while lunging for a fumbled snap in last Friday’s 42-17 loss at Aliquippa. Kasperowicz, a senior, and freshman Nate Walker will share the passer’s role in Goodworth’s absence.

“It’s fun (getting) back to what I was doing sophomore year, back to what I was doing my whole life basically,” Kasperowicz said. “I want to say it’s new, but at the same time it’s not.”

He passed for 1,353 yards and 13 touchdowns as a Planets sophomore during the 2022 season. While throwing the following summer, his shoulder started bothering him.

“It was really over time,” Kasperowicz said. “One throw, (it) was kind of just I was off platform ... threw it, felt it. I thought nothing of it. I thought I just tweaked it and let it rest a little bit.

“I went out and tried throwing weeks later after talking to a couple of doctors and I just couldn’t do it. ... The one thing that couldn’t get hurt, I ended up hurting. It scared me.”

He had his shoulder scoped but still couldn’t zip passes like he had before. The doctor’s prognosis didn’t promise that he’d ever return to form.

“When you kind of get that clarification, that ‘Hey, it might be over,’ ... You know it’s real,” said Mars coach Eric Kasperowicz, the younger Eric’s father. “When that hope is kind of gone, you have to make that realization that you’ve got to move on.”

The father and son decided it would be best for the latter to play a different position. The younger Kasperowicz wasn’t familiar with playing on the defensive side of the ball but approached the change with a workman-like attitude.

“It was a little rough at first, but at the same time I had to come to a realization where, ‘I may never do this (play quarterback) again,’” Kasperowicz said. “In my head, it just clicked. I had to come out and help my team any way I could and that was playing defense.”

Kasperowicz was an All-Greater Allegheny Conference safety in 2023, totaling 62 tackles, 6.5 of which were for a loss. He also had an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery.

Eric Kasperowicz made the switch to safety following an injury to his throwing shoulder entering his junior season. He was an All-Greater Allegheny Conference performer at that position in 2023 and has also played tailback for Mars this go-round. Brendan Howe/Butler Eagle

He had surgery to fix a Lisfranc injury after that campaign and, shortly after, had his labrum and rotator cuff reconstructed.

“I was really proud as, not a head coach, but as a father,” Coach Kasperowicz said. “Today’s day and age, with a lot of athletes, it’s all about them. They want to play the position and they want to score all the touchdowns and make all the throws. For him to be able to ... accept the fact that he couldn’t play the position he wanted to play and do whatever was best for the team at the time, that made me (think), ‘Hey, I’m doing something right.’

“He could’ve easily pouted and not got his way, but he showed real maturity.”

And here the younger Kasperowicz is, back behind center ahead of his team’s non-conference home matchup with Montour (3-0) on Friday.

“It’s the last thing we would’ve thought,” Coach Kasperowicz said.

Mainly because Goodworth operated the offense well enough to help the Planets to the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals last fall. He owns each of the school’s passing records, as well. The younger Kasperowicz has played tailback through the team’s first four games, rushing for 351 yards and three scores on 65 carries.

“Luke had a tremendous year last year, Eric came back and now he’s healthy,” Coach Kasperowicz said. “We just decided to step back and keep going (with) what we had going. Albeit Eric’s only 5-foot-10 and probably isn’t going to play quarterback in college anyway.

“It was a blessing in disguise.”

The Planets (1-3) are going to look different offensively moving forward. The goal, Coach Kasperowicz said, is plain and simple: push the ball downfield.

“There’s a lot of teams over the years that have won a lot of football games primarily running the ball or doing it from run-type sets,” Coach Kasperowicz said. “That’s something that we’re going to have to kind of explore a little bit.”

The younger Kasperowicz threw just one pass last year — an incomplete throw on a trick play against Moon. Time will tell whether his arm will look the same as it did two seasons ago.

“We’ll see,” Coach Kasperowicz said. “We haven’t really had to do much with it, so it’ll be kind of a work in progress.”