SPOKANE, Wash. – Coming off perhaps its most complete performance of the season, the Whitworth football team will see if it can take that level of performance on the road at Puget Sound on Saturday in Tacoma. The game kicks off at 1:00 pm and will be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230am and on the internet at KSBN.net. The radio broadcast will begin at 12:45 pm (PDT).
Whitworth (6-1 overall, 3-1 NWC) rolled to a 66-7 win over visiting Willamette last Saturday. Puget Sound (0-7, 0-4) is hungry for its first win of the season.
With the victory last Saturday, the Pirates clinched their eighth straight winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg. It is the longest stretch of winning years in school history.
Protect the Crew: Just like in the Pine Bowl, masks are required at all football games at Baker Stadium in Tacoma, regardless of vaccination status. Please plan accordingly.
The Pirates: Whitworth dominated offensively, defensively and on special teams, and turned two turnovers directly into touchdowns during last Saturday's 66-7 win over Willamette.
The Pirates limited the Bearcats to 175 total yards, 78 rushing and 97 passing, and 2.2 yards per play. During a 1:57 stretch at the start of the third quarter, Whitworth turned three straight Willamette turnovers into 17 points. Derrick Platt returned a fumble 25 yards for a touchdown. Patrick Serrano's interception led to Nate RaPue's 41-yard field goal. Jaylen Gonzales then returned an interception 32 yards for a touchdown. The Pirates finished with a season-high six sacks and nine tackles for loss. Gonzales led the team with six tackles, including 1.5 for losses of eight yards. In addition to the interception, he also broke up a pass. Shane Modena had a career-high six tackles, including three on special teams.
The Bucs rolled up 496 yards of offense and averaged a season-high 8.6 yards per play. Jaedyn Prewitt completed 14 of 18 passes for 295 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. He also ran for 37 yards and a score. Solomon Hines scored three touchdowns. He ran 10 times for 45 yards and two scores, including a 20-yard burst. He also took a short pass 30 yards for a touchdown on fourth and five in the second quarter. Whitworth ran for 165 yards and averaged 4.6 yards per carry. Matthew Fiesta led the receivers with four catches for 68 yards, while Kanen Ables caught three balls for 26 yards. Twelve different Pirates caught a pass in the game.
Nate RaPue made all nine of his extra points and one of two field goals. He averaged 59.5 yards per kickoff and Willamette elected to take a fair catch on every kickoff in the second half after the Bearcats were limited to 12.4 yards per return in the first half. Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros only had to punt three times, and averaged 37.0 yards. Jarvis Natividad set up a touchdown with a 47-yard punt return and averaged 19 yards per kickoff return. Fiesta averaged nearly eight yards per punt return on four attempts.
400: Whitworth won for the 400th time in school history on October 16th vs. PLU. The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 401-411-18. The last time Whitworth was over the .500 mark in football was 1928, when the Bucs were 32-31-2 all-time following an 0-3 season. Whitworth won its 100th game in 1959, during Heritage Gallery member Sam Adams' second season. The 200th victory came in 1981 under Bruce Grambo and the 300th win came in 2006 when John Tully led the Pirates to an 11-1 finish. It took 55 years to get the 100th win, 32 more to get to 200 and 25 to get to 300. It has taken Whitworth only 15 years to get to 400. In 1997 Whitworth's all-time record in football was 248-337-18, 89 games under .500.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2021 are Jaedyn Prewitt and Cody Bollig from the offense and Bryce Hornbeck and BJ Mullin from the defense. A special teams captain will be selected on a week-by-week basis. Last week it was Matthew Fiesta.
Extended Home Slate: Whitworth will play six home games in 2021, two non-conference contests and four Northwest Conference dates. The last time the Pirates had six home games during the regular season was 2018, which is the last time Whitworth won a Northwest Conference title.
Bryce Stands Tall: Despite the fact that he is one of the smaller players on Whitworth's roster, Bryce Hornbeck has come up huge for Whitworth's defense the last three seasons. After he did not get much playing time in his first two years, Hornbeck has owned one corner spot since 2019. He had four interceptions that season and five deflections. He added three interceptions in 2020-21 with four breakups. He returned an interception for a touchdown each of those two seasons. He has three picks this fall and now has nine career interceptions at Whitworth.
The Ironman: Colton Chelin has not missed a start, much less a game, in his Pirate career. The senior cornerback has started every game since stepping on campus for the 2019 season, when he was the Northwest Conference Freshman of the Year. He has seven career interceptions and 21 passes defended in his career.
Prewitt Can Do It: Jaedyn Prewitt, who threw nine passes over the course of his first two seasons, worked his way to becoming Whitworth's starting QB last spring. All he did was complete 62 of 103 passes (60.2%) for 1,074 yards with 11 touchdowns and two interceptions. He established career highs with 458 passing yards, 23 completions, 38 attempts and four touchdowns in the season-ending win over Pacific Lutheran. So far this fall Jaedyn has completed 96 of 170 passes for 1,296 yards with nine touchdowns and six interceptions.
Mr. Touchdown: If there was an official statistic for touchdowns per reception, Ethan Peloquin would likely have been a national leader in that category last spring. Half of his 14 receptions went for touchdowns. He had at least one in each of the four games. Four of those touchdown receptions came on either third or fourth down. He leads the team with five touchdown catches in 2021.
The Anchor: Cody Bollig is in his second season as Whitworth's full-time starter at left tackle. He has played in every game of his Pirate career, beginning as a major contributor during his freshman campaign.
Nearly Nate Ra-Perfect: Nate RaPue was selected as the "In the Huddle" Division III Special Teams Player of the Year last spring after he made all six of his field goals and all 19 of his extra points. So far in 2021 he is 8-12 in field goals, with a new long of 49 yards, and 26-26 in PATs.
Shutout Avoided: Whitworth scored against Linfield with 1:04 to play to avoid the Pirates' first shutout since a 35-0 loss at Linfield on Nov. 9, 2002, a stretch of 179 straight games. It is the longest stretch of games between shutouts in Pirate football history. The second longest stretch of starts between shutouts is 77 games from midway through the 1994 season until the Linfield game in 2002.
National Rankings: Whitworth fell out of the top 25 in both the D3football.com poll and the AFCA Division III Coaches Poll following a loss to Linfield on October 9th. The Pirates are listed first among "others receiving votes" in the D3football.com poll.
NWC Poll: Whitworth was second in the 2021 NWC preseason coaches poll with 43 points and one first place vote. Linfield (49 points, 7 first place votes) was first and Pacific (Ore.) (35 points) was third. Coaches cannot vote for their own school.
Winning the Opener: Following a season-opening victory over Carnegie Mellon, Whitworth has now won seven of its eight season-openers under head coach Rod Sandberg. The Pirates are 5-1 at home and 2-0 on the road. Whitworth's only season-opening loss under Sandberg was a 50-49 OT setback to Central (Iowa) in 2016. The Pirates defeated the Dutch 56-13 in Pella, Iowa during the season opener the next season.
Looking back at last "season": Whitworth played four games, but only two opponents, in 2020-21 after the season was delayed until February and March because of COVID-19. The Washington members of the Northwest Conference played only each other in all fall and winter sports.
The Pirates opened with a 53-6 win over Puget Sound and beat the Loggers 30-12 in Tacoma in game three. After beating Pacific Lutheran 28-10 on the road in the second game, Whitworth closed the spring with a 56-23 win over the Lutes at home.
Leading the Evergreen State: Since Rod Sandberg took over as Whitworth's head coach in 2014, Whitworth University has the best winning percentage of any football playing university in Washington State. Heading into 2021, the Pirates are 51-14 since 2014, a winning percentage of 78.5. That figure is better than the University of Washington (58-27, .682), Washington State (47-34, .580), Eastern Washington (59-24, .710), Central Washington (45-21, .682), Pacific Lutheran (24-33, .421) and Puget Sound (31-31, .500).
Eight in a Row: With the win over Willamette, Whitworth clinched its eighth consecutive winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg. That surpassed the longest streak of winning campaigns in school history, set between 1959 and 1965 under Sam Adams ('59-'64) and Rod Enos ('65).
On the Air Again: Whitworth's games are once again carried live this season on KSBN 1230am in Spokane. The relationship between Pirate athletics and KSBN goes back to 1994, a span of 25 years. Bud Nameck, familiar to listeners in Spokane as the (now retired) longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his seventh season as the voice of the Pirates in 2021. He was the voice of Washington State University men's basketball for 22 years, and spent that same amount of time on the Cougar football broadcasts – the final three on play by play. He is a longtime resident of the Inland Northwest who began his career as the Sports Information Director and radio voice of Gonzaga University basketball and baseball in the 1980s.
Two SWX Broadcasts: Local cable station SWX will carried two of Whitworth's games this season: the Oct. 2nd game against Lewis & Clark and last week's contest against Pacific Lutheran. SWX stands for Sports & Weather Right Now and is owned by local NBC affiliate KHQ channel 6. SWX can be seen both over-the-air and through some cable services in the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene, Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, and Yakima viewership areas. In the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area, SWX is found on digital channel 6.2, on Comcast channel 112 in Spokane and Time Warner channel 306 in North Idaho. Click here for a complete list of station numbers throughout the Eastern Washington/North Idaho region.
The Head Coach: In seven seasons Rod Sandberg has entrenched himself in the Whitworth and NCAA record books as the Pirates' head football coach. Sandberg has guided the Pirates to a 51-14 record over that span, including two appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs (2015 and 2018). He is in second place in total victories in school history and no Pirate coach reached 50 victories as quickly as Sandberg. Sandberg's winning percentage of .785 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 10 active coaches in all of Division III. He coached the Pirates to only the fourth unbeaten regular season in school history (9-0) in 2018 and only the second NCAA playoff victory (48-6 over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps). The Bucs' 15-game winning streak, counting the final five games of 2017 and the first ten of 2018, is the second-longest in school history. Whitworth was 6-4 in 2014, Sandberg's first season, the best first-year record for a Pirate football coach since Rod Enos led the team to a 6-3 mark in 1965. Sandberg spent 19 seasons on the defensive staff at Wheaton College (Ill.), including the last 11 as defensive coordinator. Wheaton made the NCAA Division III playoffs five times during Sandberg's tenure as defensive coordinator. The team never lost a first round playoff game and reached the Division III semifinals in 2008 and quarterfinals in 2003. Sandberg's 2007 and 2013 squads led the Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin, regarded as one of the strongest football leagues at the Division III level, in scoring defense. The Thunder were second in the league in scoring defense five other times.
The Loggers: The University of Puget Sound (0-7 overall, 0-4 NWC) is hungry for its first win of 2021 and the Loggers have recent history of success against the Pirates in Baker Stadium. Puget Sound averages 305.7 yards of offense and 19.4 points per game this season. The Loggers are allowing 358.1 yards and 50.0 points per contest. Head coach Jeff Thomas is in his 12th year Puget Sound and has posted a 33-71 record.
Puget Sound is not without weapons. Murdock Rutledge is a veteran quarterback who was honorable mention All-NWC in 2019. Silas Washington is a proven running back who is also dangerous catching the ball. And AJ Johnson just became the Loggers' all-time leader in career receptions and receiving yards, topping a long list of highly accomplished receivers. Rutledge has completed 52% of his passes this season for 1,017 yards with six touchdowns and nine interceptions. Washington has run for 722 yards (103.1 per game) and nine touchdowns, while grabbing 12 passes for 149 more yards. Johnson has 40 catches for 425 yards and three scores. Amarian Culpepper has 38 tackles on defense. Ezekiel Sayavong has 17 stops, including 3.5 sacks for 16 yards.
Puget Sound led for most of the first half and was within 32-29 after three quarters at Lewis & Clark last week before the Pioneers used a pair of late fourth quarter touchdowns to pull away for a 46-29 win. UPS outgained L&C 386-369, led 25-19 in first downs, and had the ball for 17 more minutes (38:35 – 21:25). Rutledge completed 10 of 22 passes for 130 yards with one touchdown and one interception and also ran for a score. Washington rolled up 214 rushing yards on 45 carries and scored twice. Johnson had four catches for 55 yards and a touchdown. Culpepper tied for the team lead with five tackles.
The Series: Puget Sound is Whitworth's oldest and longest running football rival. Whitworth's first official collegiate game was a 6-0 victory over the College of Puget Sound in 1904 (when Whitworth was located near Tacoma). The teams have played each other 73 times and the Pirates hold a 46-26-1 edge in the series with the Loggers. The biggest Pirate win in the series was 70-11 in 2012. The biggest Logger win (41-0) came in 1967. Puget Sound ended a 23-game losing streak to Whitworth in 2019 with a 34-23 victory at Baker Stadium.
Last Meeting: Whitworth played Puget Sound twice last spring, opening with a 53-6 win over the Loggers in the Pine Bowl on February 13 in frigid temperatures.
In the second meeting, the visiting Pirates won 30-12 at Baker Stadium despite the fact that Puget Sound had more yards (322 – 258), more first downs (17 - 12), more time of possession (38:16 – 21:44) and fewer turnovers (3-2). Whitworth simply dominated on special teams. The Bucs blocked a field goal and an extra point, which Colton Chelin returned for a defensive two-point conversion. A Nate RaPue punt that went out-of-bounds at the UPS 3-yard line set up Bryce Hornbeck's 11-yard interception return for a touchdown. A bad snap on a punt allowed Whitworth to take over deep in Logger territory. Finally, Puget Sound's average starting field position on five kickoff returns was its own 11-yard line.
Jaedyn Prewitt completed 13 of 21 passes for 208 yards. He threw three touchdown passes, which offset two interceptions and a fumble. After allowing two long touchdown runs in the second quarter and more than 230 yards in the first half, the Whitworth defense did not allow Puget Sound into Pirate territory until the Loggers' final drive during the second half. UPS gained only 90 yards after halftime. Derrick Platt, the NWC's Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week, led the effort with ten tackles (seven solo stops), include a 14-yard sack. Whitworth finished the game with seven sacks, including two each by Patrick Serrano and RudyJay Keopuhiwa, who also stripped Logger QB Murdock Rutledge and recovered a fumble in the third quarter.
Coming up next: Whitworth will play Pacific (Ore.) in its final home game on November 6th at noon.
