SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth University football team faces another stiff test this coming Saturday when the Pirates travel west to take on Pacific Lutheran in Puyallup. 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).
Check the 2022 Pirate football schedule for live links to video, audio and stats for Saturday's game.
Whitworth (3-2 overall, 1-1 NWC) lost 35-17 at home to Linfield last Saturday, while PLU (3-2, 2-0) demolished Lewis & Clark 47-21.
The Pirates: The 7th-ranked Wildcats found their offensive groove in the second half, scoring on four straight possessions to pull away from the Pirates in a 35-17 victory. Linfield outgained Whitworth 442-288, including a 260-148 advantage in the second half.
The Whitworth defense and special teams kept the Pirates in the game in the first half. Lindon Sevilleja came up with a big tackle on fourth down at the Whitworth two yard line to prevent a touchdown after the 'Cats had gained an interception near midfield. The Pirate special teams recovered a pair of fumbles early in the game, one on a kickoff and another on a punt. Whitworth forced Linfield's only punt of the game in the first half. Patrick Serrano had 11 tackles, while Atticus Templeton made seven solo tackles. Dylan Ventress was in on seven stops, and had a two-yard sack.
The Pirate offense scored a field goal on its opening drive, then struggled to find consistency until scoring two fourth quarter touchdowns. Ryan Blair completed 24 of 36 passes for 196 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Riley Morrison and Isaac Fields both made tough catches to haul in the touchdowns. Fields finished with five catches for 51 yards, while Morrison had four grabs for 36 yards. Ethan Peloquin ended with five receptions for 43 yards. Blair was Whitworth's leading runner with 26 net yards, despite losing 18 on four sacks. Isaiah Jones ran for 23 yards on four carries.
Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros scored the first points of the game with a 30-yard field goal. His 41-yard effort later in the first quarter went wide left, his first miss of the season. He and Nate RaPue combined to average 27.8 yards per punt. Matthew Fiesta averaged 34.75 yards on four kickoff returns, including a 51-yard return on the opening kickoff.
On Target: Ryan Blair took over as the Pirates starting QB against Eastern Oregon. The RS sophomore has completed 113 of 151 passes for 1176 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He leads the NWC and ranks third in all of NCAA Div. III in completion percentage (74.8%) and is 8th in completions per game (22.6).
Spreading the Wealth: Fifteen different players have caught at least one pass for the Pirates this season. Five different players have caught a touchdown pass. Riley Morrison leads the team in receptions (28). Evan Liggett leads the team in receiving yards (250) and touchdown catches (3). Alan Ballew tops the squad in yards per catch (18.6).
The Ironman: Colton Chelin has not missed a start, much less a game, in his Pirate career. The fifth-year senior cornerback has started every game since stepping on campus for the 2018 season, running his streak to 39 in a row on October 8th, which is the most ever in school history. He has eight career interceptions and 39 passes defended in his career.
The Anchor: Cody Bollig is in his third 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 (2019).
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 2022, the Pirates are 58-17 since 2014, a winning percentage of .773. That figure is better than the University of Washington (62-35, .639), Washington State (54-40, .600), Eastern Washington (69-27, .719), Central Washington (53-24, .609), Pacific Lutheran (28-38, .424) and Puget Sound (32-40, .444).
400: Whitworth won for the 400th time in school history October 16, 2021 in a Homecoming game vs. PLU. The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 405-415-18. 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, 22 more to get to 200 and 25 more to get to 300. It took 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.
Eight in a Row: With the win over Willamette last October, Whitworth clinched its eighth consecutive winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg. That surpassed the previous longest streak of winning campaigns in school history, set between 1959 and 1965.
Cross-over Conquest: The Northwest Conference has been very successful during its cross-over weekend against the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference the past two seasons. The NWC won six of seven games on September 17th and 11 of 14 since 2021.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2022 are Ethan Peloquin and Logan Kitselman from the offense and Colton Chelin and BJ Mullin from the defense. A special forces captain will be selected on a week-by-week basis. Last week it was Derrick Platt.
Looking Back at 2021: Whitworth started 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the NWC, but dropped season-ending decisions to Pacific (14-7) at home and at George Fox (16-10) to fall from NCAA Division III playoff contender to fourth place in the final NWC standings.
The Pirates opened with dramatic wins over Carnegie Mellon and Lincoln (Calif.), both preserved by game-saving interceptions by Jacob Hogger. The Bucs scored 134 combined points in back-to-back wins over Willamette (66-7) and Puget Sound (68-14).
On the Air Again: Whitworth's games will once again be carried live this season on KSBN 1230am in Spokane. The relationship between Pirate athletics and KSBN goes back to 1994, a span of nearly 30 years. Bud Nameck, familiar to listeners in Spokane as the (now retired) longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his eighth season as the voice of the Pirates in 2022. 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 carried two of Whitworth's games this season: the home opener on September 10th against Eastern Oregon and last Saturday's contest against Linfield. 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 eight 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 58-17 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 .773 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 10 (9th) 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 Lutes: Pacific Lutheran remained unbeaten in the Northwest Conference with a 47-21 Homecoming win over Lewis & Clark on Saturday. The Lutes (3-2 overall, 2-0 NWC) are averaging 24.8 points and 337.8 yards per game. They give up only 18.2 points and 282.8 yards per contest.
Brant McAdams is in his fifth season as head coach at PLU. McAdams was previously the defensive coordinator at Trinity (Texas), his alma mater, for five seasons. He was also the defensive coordinator at Puget Sound for three years prior to Trinity.
Senior QB Erik Bainter is in his second year as the starter for PLU. He has completed 58.3% of his passes for 959 yards with 10 touchdowns and only two interceptions. He has also run for the only three touchdowns the Lutes have scored on the ground this season. He has a pair of talented receivers. Junior Manuel Felan has 32 receptions for 400 yards with four touchdowns. Fellow junior John Walker averages 22.0 yards on his 14 catches and has four touchdowns as well. Junior RB Raysen Motoyama has run for 263 yards and averages 4.0 yards per carry.
The PLU defense is disruptive, leading the conference in tackles for loss (43). The Lutes have 21 sacks for 136 yards in losses, led by senior safety Kord Tuttle (4.5 sacks for 36 yards) and junior lineman Nico Golla (4.0 sacks for 24 yards).
PLU broke a 14-14 halftime tie by outscoring visiting Lewis & Clark 33-7 in the second half of a 47-21 win over the Pioneers. The Lutes outgained the Pioneers 394-285, holding L&C to a total of -4 yards on the ground, thanks in part to six sacks (-37) and 12 tackles for loss. Tuttle had two sacks for 14 yards. Also on defense, Ashton Barton returned an interception 100 yards to make the score 33-14, instead of 27-21. Bainter completed 21 of 38 passes for 296 yards with four touchdowns. Felan had nine catches for 135 yards and two scores.
The Series: No other opponent has more wins against Whitworth than PLU. The Lutes lead the all-time series 51-27. It has been a series featuring winning streaks by each team. The Lutes won the first nine meetings between the schools. The Pirates won seven in a row from 1959 through 1964, outscoring PLU 310 – 28 during that stretch with six straight shutouts. Between 1966 and 2001, PLU won 32 straight games against the Bucs. The Pirates won six in a row from 2004-09, then the Lutes won five straight from 2010-14. Whitworth has now won eight in a row. The largest winning margin in the series is a 67-0 win for the Pirates in 1961. PLU's biggest margin of victory is 47-0 in 1970. The first meeting was a 27-0 victory for the Lutes in 1931. The last PLU win was 41-27 in 2014, Rod Sandberg's first season as head coach at Whitworth.
Last Meeting: Whitworth gave up six turnovers, had the ball for ten fewer minutes than Pacific Lutheran and watched a 17-0 lead evaporate by the fourth quarter, yet still won by two touchdowns in a 31-17 victory over Pacific Lutheran last season in the Pine Bowl.
The Pirates ran 13 fewer plays than PLU, yet outgained the Lutes 367-281. Whitworth had its best rushing game of the season, picking up 189 yards on 36 carries (5.2 yards per attempt). Solo Hines ran for 89 yards (4.9 ypc) and a touchdown, while Isaiah Jones gained 54 yards (6.0 ypc) with a TD. Matthew Fiesta made an impact on four WR sweeps or reverses, gaining 55 yards (13.8 ypc). Jaedyn Prewitt completed 13 of 26 passes for 178 yards with four interceptions and two touchdowns. Kanen Ables and Ethan Peloquin caught the touchdown passes.
Patrick Serrano and Dylan Ventress led Whitworth with ten tackles apiece. Dylan Owen, making his first start at defensive end, was disruptive throughout the game with 3.5 tackles for loss, including two sacks, and two other QB hurries.
Nate RaPue made one of two field goal attempts, from 32 yards in the second quarter. His 38-yard attempt later in the second barely missed wide left. Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros only had to punt twice, for an average of 57 yards. Cameron Sheley averaged 22.3 yards per kickoff return and Fiesta averaged 7.7 yards per punt return.
Coming up next: Whitworth will travel to Willamette on October 22nd.
