Sophomore comes up big for Lexington

Friday, August 31, 2007 11:38 PM CDT

By Randy Reinhardt
rreinhardt@pantagraph.com

LEXINGTON -- T.J. Stinde’s impact on Friday’s Heart of Illinois Conference football game was immediate.

It also had staying power.

The Lexington High School sophomore’s 95-yard return of the opening kickoff was only the beginning of his many and varied contributions as the Minutemen stopped LeRoy, 48-7.

“He’s a sophomore. Every time I think about that, I think he’s here three years,” said first-year Lexington coach Mike Castleman. “As a coach, I’m definitely excited about that.”

Stinde’s performance also featured touchdown receptions of 20 and 25 yards, 50 yards rushing, two fumble recoveries and six extra point kicks as the Minutemen, ranked No. 8 in Class 1A, improved to 2-0.

“He’s accomplished what he’s accomplished because he’s worked hard,” said Castleman, “and he’s got a line up front doing their job.”

Stinde’s return of the opening kickoff came after an emphasis on special teams in Lexington’s practices this week.

“It was definitely a good start of the game. We gained a lot of momentum,” Stinde said. “I had a couple of good blocks up front.”

Lexington piled up 260 yards rushing behind 81 yards from Tyler Van Vickle and 76 from Ryan Hanes. Van Vickle, Hanes and Stinde each had eight carries.

“They came out in their home opener and played awfully well,” said LeRoy coach B.J. Zeleznik. “They’ve got some inexperience, but they’ve got seniors on the field who are big and physical and athletic. They manhandled us and did some awfully good things.”

Lexington led 13-0 after a 47-yard touchdown run around right end from Hanes.

LeRoy (0-2) countered with a 69-yard drive that ended with a 22-yard touchdown pass from Kyle Eastham to Billy Toohill.

The Minutemen took a 27-7 lead into halftime after Bruce Freed scoring passes of 38 yards to Hanes and 20 yards to Stinde.

Freed completed 4 of 12 passes for 114 yards. Three of the completions went for touchdowns.

Lexington’s second-half touchdowns came on the 25-yard pass to Stinde and runs of 8 yards from Hanes and 3 yards from Michael Emberton.

“We’re going through some growing pains. We have some young, inexperienced kids,” said Zeleznik. “There is some ability there. Two out of three times we do some really good things. One out of three times we don’t execute the way we should and that’s costing us.”

LeRoy finished with 176 yards of total offense. Eastham passed for 44 yards and Jordan Swanson paced the Panthers’ rushers with 38 yards.