Benjamin worked to become Goffstown football's versatile leader

A new coach. A new offense. A new position.

When Connor Benjamin found out that the new Goffstown High School football coach was going to install the spread offense before the start of the 2011 season, he was excited.

When Benjamin, then a junior, found out first-year coach Justin Hufft wanted him to play quarterback, to be the one to run the offense, Benjamin was less than thrilled.

Before Hufft’s arrival, the Grizzlies had always been a running team, lining up in the straight-T formation, and the quarterback’s role was to turn around and hand off. Every once in a while, he might be asked to throw a pass.

“When I first got moved, I was not that happy,” Benjamin said. “I had hated playing quarterback.

But once the Grizzlies began practicing, and Benjamin was able to see firsthand the changes Hufft was making, he jumped on board.

“I knew where he was coming from,” Hufft said. “He was an athlete who was used to having the ball in his hands and running around with the ball and making plays.

“People were used to thinking of the quarterback as a guy who hands the ball off and throws it occasionally. Once he saw what we were doing on offense, it kind of sold itself. There was a little trepidation early on, but once we got going, he saw what we were doing and that it could be a lot of fun.”

Fun might be a bit of an understatement. A year ago, Benjamin helped lead Goffstown to the best record in Division III, as the Grizzlies went 7-1 and earned the top seed.

But Goffstown, and Benjamin, didn’t get there right away. As a sophomore, he’d run into a little bit of bad luck, suffering an injury in practice the same week he was supposed to make the jump to varsity.

Benjamin battled injuries throughout the year, and when the new coach took over, he was, at that time, just another face in the crowd.

“I was told there was nothing here, there was no line and no quarterback,” Hufft said of when he took over the team. “I saw the way (Benjamin) worked out, which was impressive. There was a little bit of film from a JV game the year before, so maybe there was something there. It wasn’t until we took the field that first year and he started making some plays. You could see that he had it, I guess.”

What it was, was an ability to not only make plays, both with his legs and arm, but Benjamin was able to pick up the reads he needed in order to make the Goffstown offense to work.

“Our offense is based on a lot of reads, so we’re always reading a player on the defense for a majority of our plays,” Benjamin said. “This offense allows better holes to open up, there’s more room. I can run, I can pass. There are just more options.”

During last year’s run, Benjamin made a name for himself as a running threat from the quarterback position, one of the reasons Hufft went with him as the team’s starter. But once the playoffs hit, the Grizzlies ran into trouble, turning the ball over five times in a 34-8 loss to Portsmouth.

When the season ended, it was back to the weight room for Benjamin, but that wasn’t the only place he spent his offseason. Knowing he needed to improve his passing skills, the soon-to-be senior quarterback hit the film room, to study his mechanics, and went out on the field, to work out the kinks.

“He’s really taken it upon himself to get better at that,” Hufft said. “Some of it is just throwing the ball and working on mechanics in the summer, but it’s also film work and making reads and knowing who to throw it to (and) when. It’s like being a point guard in basketball when you’re the quarterback in the spread. He’s really improved that part of his game.”

Improving his passing ability has opened up more running room for Benjamin, as the Grizzlies went 5-3 in division this year and earned the No. 4 seed. But in last week’s upset of Souhegan in the Division III semifinals, it was his arm that did most of the damage.

“He just threw for 300 yards in a playoff game,” Hufft said. “I thought he could be good and effective, but if you look at some of the numbers he’s put up, I think it’s unprecedented in the state.

“For a guy to throw for 300 and run for 200 in one game, to have over 500 yards of total offense four different times now, I didn’t expect that. We have good kids around him and he just makes great plays.”

Benjamin will have one more chance to make plays against the one team that’s given the Grizzlies trouble the last two years – Portsmouth.

The Clippers are the only team Goffstown hasn’t defeated in Hufft’s short tenure, and it hasn’t really been close. During the regular season, Portsmouth won on its turf, 56-22, and Saturday’s Division III championship game will once again be on the seacoast.

“We made a lot of mistakes, and those mistakes just need to be corrected,” Benjamin said of this season’s first meeting. “We have a good game plan, so we have to stay focused all week at practice. We have to work hard and make sure everyone is doing their job. We have to be focused and not scared at all. We just want to win, whatever it takes.”