Bennett Now Rides Crest After Inauspicious Debut

There was Eric Bennett, sitting in front of a TV screen. And there was Ryan Fien, whose image was on it.

“That was pretty neat just watching him because I played (against) him last year,” said Bennett, Simi Valley High’s senior quarterback.

Fien, who played for nearby Royal a year ago, had been thrown into the fray as a replacement quarterback for UCLA at Washington State.

While Bennett might have been looking to the day he too could be on TV, he might also have been looking back to a time when he, like Fien, was in over his head. Learning on the job, so to speak.

Bennett’s debut as the varsity quarterback at Simi Valley was inauspicious. He was promoted from the sophomore team to start the final two games for a team on its way to an 0-10 record. Bennett was in there to get a taste of varsity football.

It didn’t taste very good. He got pounded.

Tom Herman, who leads Simi Valley with 32 receptions, was a member of that sophomore team in 1990 and remembers watching Bennett’s varsity debut.

“It was funny because I would be about the only guy left in the stands and I would sit with his parents and we would yell, ‘He’s only a sophomore!’ ” Herman said.

The stands don’t empty now while Bennett is on the field.

Last week he led the Pioneers to a 42-32 upset of Camarillo by throwing for 423 yards--breaking the Ventura County record of 409 set by Joe Davis of Hueneme in 1971--and five touchdowns. This season, Bennett (6-foot-1, 185 pounds) has thrown for 1,665 yards and 17 touchdowns, second in the area to Newbury Park’s Keith Smith in both categories.

The Simi Valley record book has Eric Bennett’s name all over it. He holds virtually every passing record.

“He’s not the fastest guy,” Coach Stan Quina said. “He doesn’t have the strongest arm. But he has good enough natural talent that when he puts that together with his tenacity, he gets the job done.”

Not always, though.

The 1990 season was miserable for the Pioneers. The starting quarterback went down with shoulder problems, then the backup didn’t cut it. Quina and his staff decided the present was ugly enough, and they wanted to look at the future, specifically at Bennett, who was putting up big numbers on the sophomore team.

Bennett proceeded to lead the Pioneers to a grand total of zero points, in losses of 23-0 to Royal and 55-0 to Newbury Park.

“He didn’t have the greatest of beginnings for the varsity as far as production, but he showed us a lot of positive things as far as staying in there and taking a hit,” Quina said. “We gave him the test by fire and he passed it by our book.”

Bennett, who had played defensive back as a freshman, said those opening games left quite an impression.

“That was rough,” he said, “but it helped prepare me for my junior year. I knew what to expect. I knew what varsity was like.”

It was a different Bennett who played for Simi Valley in 1991. As a result, it was a different Simi Valley.

Bennett threw for 2,467 yards and 21 touchdowns. After winning only one of their previous 30 games, the Pioneers went 7-4.

The Eric Bennett Era might have begun Sept. 27, 1991.

The Pioneers trailed undefeated Santa Maria by nine points with six minutes to play, but Bennett completed touchdown passes of 64 and 41 yards--the second with 48 seconds remaining--to lead Simi Valley to a 19-15 upset on the road.

“He’s got the ‘quarterback aura,’ ” Quina said. “It’s a presence that the guys on the offense and the other guys on the team know he can make things happen. He has the confidence that he can get the job done.”

Bennett is a leader, though not an outspoken one. He is not much of a talker, although Quina said “if someone is really messing up, (Bennett) will let him know.”

When asked to describe last week’s Camarillo game, which he called his best, Bennett could only say: “Everything was just going our way. The receivers were catching the ball and the line was blocking well.”

Colleges have noticed Bennett. Quina said he’s getting feelers “from everybody,” but it’s still a little early to tell exactly the level at which he can play. Bennett said he’s most interested in Fresno State, San Jose State, Nevada Las Vegas and Washington State.

Should Bennett wind up at Washington State, he would play on the same field on which Fien made his debut.

And perhaps some high school quarterback from the area with similar aspirations will be watching Bennett on TV.