The first touchdown scored in the new era of Eastern football wasn’t exactly what fans were expecting. It wasn’t Erik Lora, Chris Wright or Jake Walker. It wasn’t even thrown by Jimmy Garoppolo.

The first touchdown of the season under new head coach Dino Babers came from red-shirt sophomore tight end Sam Hendricks, a former high school quarterback.

Hendricks, who played at Indian Hill High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, rushed for 1,487 yards and 24 touchdowns while passing for 1,129 yards in his senior season, came to Eastern as a tight end.

He said the coaching staff’s knowledge of his quarterback roots gave them confidence in him to make those types of plays.

“Knowing that I have played QB and whatnot has made them confident to allow me to throw the ball on some of those double passes,” he said.

Hendricks never even thought he’d throw a football in college.

“It feels good,” he said. “They had known that I played quarterback in high school, and I also have practiced as QB a little bit during spring practice and a couple weeks throughout fall camp.”

Hendricks’ first pass of his college career was to red-shirt wide receiver Chavar Watkins, who Hendricks said he just hoped was open.

“I was just really hoping Chavar was open, and it turned out perfect,” he said. “Just a pitch and catch.”

The Panthers went on to beat Southern Illinois-Carbondale 49-28 in the season opener with the help of their new up-tempo offense.

“The offense is working out very well,” he said. “We have definitely minimized the mistakes that we made early on. We’re definitely clicking. We’ve kept the up-tempo rolling. It’s been nice.”

The offense, which may appear confusing to the naked eye, is actually quite simple, Hendricks said.

“It’s a simple offense once you understand it,” he said. “It’s nice that we can actually run about 100 plays a game. It’s just easy.”

Hendricks said the new offense was introduced to the team lightly, and now its easy.

“In spring, the installment was very light,” he said. “They didn’t want to badger us with all the different kinds of plays, but now since we’ve gotten the concept down, we’ve been able to put in every one, and it’s just coming easy to us.”

The 40-yard touchdown in the first game has been Hendricks’ only pass so far this season, but he said he’s open to more.

“I mean, if it comes my way, I’m not going to complain,” he said. “Whatever’s necessary to win, I’m all for it.”

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.