Granite Hills' Zachary Benitez is CIF San Diego Section Football Freshman of the Year

Benitez became the first freshman quarterback to start in the San Diego Section Open Division playoffs

SBLive's 2023 Freshman of the Year

QB - Zachary Benitez, Granite Hills

In the nine-year history of the San Diego Section Open Division football playoffs, no team had started a freshman at quarterback. That no longer is the case.

Zachary Benitez, the freshman signal caller at Granite Hills led the Eagles to a road playoff win against top-seeded Carlsbad before taking down Lincoln in the title game a week later.

Benitez led Granite Hills on a game-winning drive against St. Augustine in his second career start and won each of his first 12 games before falling to Mission Viejo in the Southern California regional playoffs.

He found his groove midway through the season, tossing 15 touchdown passes and zero interceptions over a seven-game span that included wins over all three other Open Division teams, Helix, Carlsbad and Lincoln.

For the season, Benitez finished with 23 touchdown passes and four interceptions while completing 64 percent of his passes. He also rushed for three touchdowns.

• Player of the Year: Julian Sayin, Carlsbad, Sr.

• Offensive Player of the Year: Kevin Allen III, Helix, Sr.

• Defensive Player of the Year: Jerome Roberts, Lincoln, Sr.

• Freshman of the Year: Zachary Benitez, Granite Hills

(Feature photo by Steven Silva)

-- Bodie De Silva | bodie@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveca