NEW LEXINGTON — Paul Stenson and a veteran offensive line, led by All-Ohioans Tristan Braden and Eli Stephens, provided a security blanket of the ages for New Lexington’s offense in 2025.
Stenson, a first-team All-Ohio running back and Back of the Year in the Muskingum Valley League-Small School Division, spearheaded a running game that provided 2,925 yards by season’s end. It allowed quarterback Lane Ratliff, a true dual threat with more than 2,000 yards of total offense, to be selective with his aerial assaults.
But if a second straight playoff loss in the rain to two-time Division IV Region 15 champion Gnadenhutten Indian Valley proved anything, it was that more development was required.
That made this spring a critical one for Ratliff and his receivers.
Ratliff, a lefty, and top targets Tyson Spicer, Tanner Toth and Eli Dixon spearheaded player-led workouts in April at Jim Rockwell Stadium, two months before the official offseason began on July 1.
Coupled with the return of Division I line recruit Stephens, who is committed to Army, the Panthers could have the best returning all-around core yet under veteran coach Kevin Board. This, despite losing three All-Ohioans in linebacker Harrison Ratliff, lineman Braden and Stenson.
Ratliff, who owns a Division I offer from Charlotte, Toth and Terrelle King are three of the MVL’s most heady defenders, with a dominant force in Stephens up front and Spicer and Dixon also serving as key players in the back eight.
No one, Board particularly, is putting the cart before the horse. He is also not denying their capability, even as three vacancies from a veteran offensive line need filled to allow their wealth of skill to thrive. Board called the senior class special.
But he knows it’s going to take more, which also partly explains the eagerness of the player-led workouts.
“It’s easy to say it,” Board said of the team’s lofty goals. “It’s another thing to back it up and come to work every day, and pay attention with your practices, with your reps, with your film study, with your recovery, and rehab and treatment afterwards. To make sure your body’s right for all that.”
The summer focus, at least with team-organized events, hit the ground running on July 1 after many players, such as wrestling standouts like Spicer, focused on other sports in the spring. Recent weeks have focused on strength and conditioning and the usual 7-on-7s, including eight-teamers on July 15 and 22 at home.
By then, Ratliff and Co. were already rolling.
“We started (as a team) in July, but we were having player-led open fields and stuff like that (in the spring),” Ratliff said. “I just made sure to get with the boys. I think we have a lot of chemistry as a team. We’re all a tight-knit group.”
Ratliff competed 68% of his passes for 1,434 yards and 13 touchdowns in 2025, with Spicer, Toth and Dixon combining for 83 catches and all but one of the team’s TDs.
With the new linemen learning on the fly, it’s unlikely the security of a 2,925-yard rushing attack will remain, even as Stephens and backup running back Colton Mathias return after running for 543 yards on 122 carries in 2026. Ratliff, a solid 200 pounds, tallied 764 yards for a 9-yard average.
Ratliff said there remains plenty of room for development in the passing game, even with last season’s noteworthy efficiency. He felt some lights illuminated late in 2025 and continued during the voluntary workouts.
“There is so much growth that I have seen,” Ratliff said. “There is so much more we can do this season throwing. Just going through my reads better and finding ways we can communicate, and how we can connect better — like where I should throw it and where (the receivers) are going to be. It’s just reading their minds.”
Board said while the 7-on-7s lacks the physicality of front-seven play on defense and the threat of the running game to the secondary, they still serve an important purpose.
Many are those Ratliff mentioned.
“It’s still timing,” Board explained. “It’s still drops. It’s still reading coverages and reading offensive schemes, so there is still a lot of good that can come from it.
“A lot of it is, the way the schedule falls, you get that first scrimmage your first week in August,” Board added. “So, you have got to get as many reps as you can get (in July), because you’ve got four days and a few hours before your first scrimmage. … It helps speed up the teaching because you can’t get these reps in practice.”
If the improvements aren’t enough to match or surpass the brilliance of 2025, it won’t be lack of effort, Ratliff said. He said the collective focus has been unwavering.
“I’m making sure to be a leader out there — and I think all the seniors are,” Ratliff said. “But that is definitely our motive right now, just to rally everybody together. Make sure we are hitting on all cylinders, even more so than we did last year and get farther than we did before.”
sblackbu@usatodayco.com; X: @SamBlackburnTR
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Lane Ratliff, New Lex passing game seeing ‘so much growth’ in workouts
Reporting by Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder / Zanesville Times Recorder
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By Sam Blackburn, Zanesville Times Recorder | USA TODAY Network
