SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University Pirates hit the road for a Northwest Conference showdown with the Linfield University Wildcats on Saturday in McMinnville, Oregon. The game kicks off at 1:30 pm and will be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230am and on the internet at KSBN.net. The radio broadcast will begin at 1:15 pm (PDT).
Whitworth (4-0 overall, 1-0 NWC) is ranked 18th in this week's D3football.com poll and 21st in the AFCA Coaches top-25 poll. The Pirates are coming off a 35-17 victory over Lewis & Clark in the NWC opener last Saturday. Linfield (3-0, 1-0) is ranked 7th in both polls after crushing Puget Sound 56-7 last Saturday.
Planning on going to the game? Proof of vaccinations and masks are currently required at all of Linfield's athletic facilities. Please plan accordingly. Fans can also check the Whitworth football schedule for live links to follow the game.
The Pirates: Whitworth started slowly, but eventually posted season-highs for points, yards and first downs in last Saturday's 35-17 win over visiting Lewis & Clark.
Whitworth's offense had its best game of the season, rolling up 576 total yards and 30 first downs. The Pirates converted 11 of 18 third downs into first downs. Solomon Hines had his best game so far, running for 79 yards and a touchdown, while catching four passes for 137 yards and an 88-yard TD. Caleb Christensen came into the game at QB in the second quarter and went on to complete 28 of 42 passes for 407 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Ethan Peloquin caught nine passes for 88 yards and a touchdown. Matthew Fiesta scored the game's final TD on a 16-yard reverse.
Whitworth's defense gave up 402 yards to the much-improved L&C offense, but had five takeaways and six sacks. Jacob Hogger led the way with a dozen tackles and broke up a pass. RudyJay Keopuhiwa made eight tackles, including 2.5 sacks for nine yards. Derrick Platt had two tackles for losses of nine yards, including one that forced a fumble in the fourth quarter. Bryce Hornbeck had both of Whitworth's interceptions and broke up a pass to go along with six tackles.
Nate RaPue made two of three field goals, including a career-best 49-yard kick on the final play of the first half. He also made all four of his extra points and averaged 61 yards per kickoff, including a touchback. Omar Campos-Ontiveros averaged 30 yards per punt. The Pirates averaged better-than 26 yards per kickoff return, led by Jarvis Natvidad's three returns for 77 yards.
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 Derrick Platt.
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 19 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.
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 four touchdown catches and 21 receptions 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 6-7 in field goals, with a new long of 49 yards, and 12-12 in PATs.
National Rankings: Whitworth remained 18th in this week's D3hoops.com poll. The Pirates moved up one spot to 21st in the AFCA Division III Coaches 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).
Seven in a Row: With the win at Puget Sound last March, Whitworth clinched its seventh consecutive winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg. That matched the longest streak of winning campaigns in school history, set between 1959 and 1965.
Nine in a Row: Whitworth is currently on a nine-game winning streak that spans three seasons. The Bucs won the final game of the 2019 season and all four games during the 2020-21 Covid-affected schedule. The Pirates' longest winning streak ever (20 games) spanned four seasons, beginning with the final game of the 1953 season, followed by an 8-0 year in 1954, 9-0 in 1955 and then the first two games of 1956.
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 carry two of Whitworth's games this season: last week's game against Lewis & Clark and the October 16th contest against Pacific Lutheran. Rob Jesselson will do play by play while Mike Peterson provides color commentary. 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 Wildcats: Despite not playing a game in 2020-21, the Linfield Wildcats are back as conference and national contenders in 2021. The 7th-ranked Wildcats are 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the NWC, averaging 54.3 points per game while allowing only 12.3 points per contest.
Joseph Smith, a life-long Wildcat, is in his 16th season as Linfield's head coach. He carries a 130-26 record into Saturday's game. Smith previously served as a Wildcats' assistant coach for 13 seasons, including seven years as the defensive coordinator. Smith graduated from Linfield in 1993 after earning NAIA All-America honors (second team) as a corner back.
Wyatt Smith, Coach Smith's son and the 2019 NWC Offensive Player of Year, is off to a stellar start in 2021. He has completed 72% of his passes for 963 yards with 12 touchdowns and only one interception. He has plenty of players to throw to, including freshman WR Joel Valadez, who has nine catches for 231 yards (25.7 ypc) with four touchdowns and his brother Colton, who was the 2019 NWC Freshman of the Year. Sophomore running back Connor McNabb leads the team with 12 receptions for 124 yards and 176 yards rushing (5.5 ypc) and a score. Senior DE Travis Swanson has been incredibly disruptive with 10 tackles for loss (39 yards), including 3.5 sacks (20 yards). Sophomore DB Ben Baxter has 16 tackles.
Linfield dominated during a 56-7 win at Puget Sound, rolling up 545 yards and allowing only 173. Smith completed 24 of 33 passes for 336 yards with five touchdowns and no interception. He threw a pair of touchdowns to Colten, including a 49-yarder for the games first TD. McNabb carried seven times for 53 yards and a touchdown and had four receptions for 78 yards. Swanson had two tackles for loss, including a seven-yard sack.
The Series: Linfield leads the overall series 38-6-2. The teams have not played in McMinnville since 2017. The Pirates ended an 11-game losing streak to the Wildcats in 2018. The first meeting was a 13-13 tie in 1952. Linfield's largest margin of victory was 61-0 in 1966, while Whitworth's largest win was 41-13 in 1954. The Wildcats once had a 14 game winning streak in the series.
Last Meeting: Whitworth fell behind nationally-ranked Linfield 21-7 in the first quarter, scored 24 straight points for a 31-21 lead, then lost 38-31 in overtime while darkness settled in at the Pine Bowl on November 9, 2019. It was the first overtime contest between the schools.
Linfield outgained Whitworth 517-407 and had a 31-22 edge in first downs. However, the Pirates intercepted Linfield QB Wyatt Smith three times, including a 35-yard return for a touchdown by Bryce Hornbeck. Hornbeck finished with two interceptions. Whitworth also sacked Smith four times. Nick McGill caught four passes for a Whitworth season-high total of 95 yards, including a 46-yard touchdown pass from Taylor Kolste on a flea-flicker at the end of the first quarter. McGill also threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Taylor Hall on a reverse in the second period. Quarterback Leif Ericksen completed 28 of 52 passes for 280 yards with one touchdown and one interception in his final game at the Pine Bowl. Isaiah Cole was a spark running the ball for Whitworth before he left with an injury in the third quarter. He finished with 52 yards on five carries and had 101 all-purpose yards.
Coming up next: Whitworth will host Pacific Lutheran during Homecoming and Family Weekend on October 16th at 1:00 pm in the Pine Bowl.
