Edward Little quarterback Leighton Girardin before practice at the high school recently. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)

AUBURN — From the time he first buckled on a chin strap, Leighton Girardin wanted to play quarterback.

As a sophomore, Girardin’s designs on being Edward Little’s varsity QB hit a very large road block in Grant Hartley, who was a year ahead of him and on his way to becoming a two-year starter and University of Maine walk-on. 

Knowing he would have to wait two years to start taking varsity snaps, Girardin eagerly accepted EL coach Dave Sterling’s interim plans for him to start at safety and be one of Hartley’s weapons as a receiver.

“The two years I was behind Grant, it was tough,” Girardin said. “But I love the sport and I love the team too much to be a pout about it. I just thought I’d try to be the best I could at whatever they needed me to do.”

To Girardin, that included staying at the ready in case anything happened to Hartley. Inspired by Tom Brady’s ascension to starting quarterback of the New England Patriots, he was determined to make sure his first opportunity to lead the Red Eddies wasn’t wasted.

“I said whenever I had the chance I’d make the most of it,” he said. “And now that it’s my senior year and I finally have a chance, I’m just going to give it everything I have and not look back.” 

All that Girardin has had to give this season is one of the most dynamic performances by a quarterback in Class A North. He leads the conference in passing yards, completion percentage and touchdowns. He’s also third overall in rushing, and second among quarterbacks to only Colton Carson of Oxford Hills. 

On Friday night, he leads the 2-2 Red Eddies into a big conference game at Portland.

“He finally got his turn at quarterback and he’s doing an exceptional job,” Sterling said. “He’s an amazing athlete as well as a great contributor to the team. He’s always wanted to do his part.”

Girardin gained more appreciation for being able do his part after the Eddies’ first game of last season. Blocking on a run play against Bangor, he got a finger on his left hand caught between two helmets while blocking and opened up a laceration that required 18 stitches.

“When it happened, I thought my season was over,” he said. “We got the stitches out after a couple of weeks and when I was cleared to play (for a Week 5 win over Massabesic), I was so excited.”

His excitement grew last spring when Hartley graduated and Sterling told him the quarterback job was finally his. Knowing that he had some rust to shake off, he and receivers Josh Hamel, Josh Kaiser, John Knight and Caleb Yarnevich worked out at Bates College.

“We’d go three or four days a week during the summer,” he said. “We’d skip (other) plans (in order) to practice because we knew that a lot of the season was going to be riding on what we did during the offseason.”

“The connection during the two years that I wasn’t quarterback between me and the receivers definitely faded a little bit, so we got a lot of our chemistry back and it’s been a lot easier throwing to them,” he said.

Returning to quarterback wasn’t exactly like getting back on a bicycle. But even while he was playing elsewhere, Girardin considered himself the quarterback’s understudy, and picked up a lot of tips watching and talking to Hartley.

“I was learning behind Grant for two years. He was a big help,” he said. “He was always there if I ever had a question. Having him as someone to look up to has been huge for me the last couple of years.”

As an active mentor to freshmen and youth football players and member of the student leadership council, Girardin would have little trouble commanding a huddle, Sterling believed. His biggest challenge, one every new varsity quarterback faces, would be learning to let the game come to him by finding the balance between applying what he’s taught and trusting his instincts.

“He’s matured into it,” Sterling said. “We’ve tried to expose his abilities to him a little bit more (by) rolling him out quite a bit, trying to create pressure on the defense by giving him that run-pass option. Sometimes I have to emphasize with him, ‘You’re being an athlete first. You don’t have to show off the arm all of the time. You can get us five or 10 yards and we’ll be pretty happy with that.'”

“(Sterling) has helped me a lot with getting settled in the pocket and just slowing down the game, as he says just picturing plays before they happen and reading defenses before the ball is snapped,” Girardin said. “I’ve definitely come a long way since summer 7-on-7s, and he’s helped me a lot.”

Girardin’s calling card is his 4.6/40 speed, and the Eddies love to get him in space. He also has the toughness to run inside and make defenses pay for focusing on the outside too much.

“Probably the reason that we’re able to run the ball so effectively on the interior with him is because he’s not afraid to stick his nose into the middle of a pile and get us three yards when we need it,” Sterling said. 

Like all coaches, Sterling wants his best runners to run North-South. But Girardin’s speed allows him to make big plays running East-West, too, plays that sometimes have his coach tearing his hair out initially before ultimately raising his arms as the quarterback crosses the goal-line.

Two such plays came two weeks ago in a win over Windham. The first saw Girardin run literally West-to-East-back-to-West for for about 80 yards on what was officially a 29-yard touchdown. The second was a 75-yard touchdown pass to Ricky Cote.

“They blitzed right up the middle so I rolled out to the left,” he said. “We had a back-side post coming across, and I’m thinking it’s either throw an incomplete pass or get sacked. But then I see Ricky streaking down the sideline with no one within 10 yards of him and I’m, like, I’m just going to get as much under this ball as I can and hopefully we have a big play.”

“It’s another play coach wouldn’t be happy with. (He says) ‘Never throw it deep and late, and I threw it deep and late,'” said Girardin, who is keeping his college options open in hopes of continuing his football career. “It ended up working out, but you can’t rely on plays like that.”

Maybe you can’t rely on them, but they’re sure nice to have if you need them.

Edward Little quarterback Leighton Girardin before practice at the high school recently. (Andree Kehn/Sun Journal)