SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates will host Linfield University in a key Northwest Conference football match up in the Pine Bowl this Saturday on Homecoming and Hall of Fame weekend. The game kicks off at 1:05 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). Local television station SWX will televise the game in Spokane on channel 6.2 and regionally on other outlets.
Check the 2022 Pirate football schedule for live links to video, audio and stats for Saturday's game.
Whitworth (3-1 overall, 1-0 NWC) is coming off a win at Lewis & Clark last Saturday, while 7th-ranked Linfield (3-0, 1-0) demolished Puget Sound 72-2.
Tickets: Digital tickets are required for entrance to the Whitworth Pine Bowl for all fans. Tickets can be purchased in advance using the Hometown Ticketing App. Follow the link for access. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for senior adults, non-Whitworth students and children. Whitworth students get free admission by using a student ID number.
The Pirates: Trailing 14-7 midway through the first quarter, Whitworth outscored Lewis & Clark 59-14 the rest of the way in a 66-28 win in Portland in the NWC opener for both teams. The Pirates finished with strong advantages in first downs (34-12) and total offense (570-281).
The Whitworth offense had its best showing of the season, surpassing the previous season-high for points before halftime. Ryan Blair completed 29 of 34 passes (85%) for 407 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. He played only three quarters. Twelve different players caught a pass in the game. Jet Uechi had three catches for 104 yards and two touchdowns, while Ethan Peloquin caught five passes for 100 yards in his first extended action of the season. Dillon Kuk had six grabs for 47 yards and a score. The running game showed improvement, picking up 140 yards on 35 carries. Solo Hines ran seven times for 44 yards, while Ryan Black had five carries for 35 yards. Both scored a touchdown. Luke Roberts scored twice in short-yardage situations. Whitworth never had to punt in the game.
After Lewis & Clark scored on three of its first five possessions, the Whitworth defense limited the Pioneers to 20 plays and 11 total yards over the next seven times the Pioneers had the ball. Dylan Ventress led the team with ten tackles. Patrick Serrano had eight stops, including three for losses of 13 yards. He also forced a fumble that was recovered by Dylan Owen in the third quarter, leading directly to another Pirate touchdown. Owen made five tackles and was in on two sacks for 15 yards.
Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros remained perfect kicking field goals and extra points this season. His 26-yard field goal to start the third quarter gave the Bucs a 45-21 lead. He went 9-9 on extra points and nearly doubled his season scoring total in one game. Nate RaPue attempted his first field goal of the season as time expired in the first half from 48 yards, but came up a little short. Matthew Fiesta set up Whitworth's opening touchdown with a 43-yard kickoff return.
Saturday's radio highlights, courtesy of Bud Nameck:
Solo Hines runs for a touchdown on Whitworth's second play from Scrimmage (Listen)
Ryan Black scores his first career touchdown from 19 yards away (Listen)
Ryan Blair throws a 47-yard touchdown pass to Jet Uechi (Listen)
Patrick Serrano forces a fumble, recovered by Dylan Owen (Listen)
Luke Roberts runs for his second touchdown of the game (Listen)
First Timers: Four players scored the first touchdown of their Pirate careers on Saturday. Luke Roberts ran for two one-yard touchdowns, while Ryan Black ran one in from 19 yards. Fourth-string RB Luis Salgado scored on a 12-yard run for Whitworth's last touchdown. And, even though he leads the team in pass receptions this year, Riley Morrison waited until Saturday for his first touchdown catch.
On Target: Ryan Blair took over as the Pirates starting QB against Eastern Oregon. The RS sophomore has completed 89 of 115 passes for 980 yards with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. He ranks second in all of NCAA Div. III in completion percentage (77.4%) and is 10th in completions per game (22.25).
Spreading the Wealth: Sixteen 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 (24). Evan Liggett leads the team in receiving yards (226) 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 38 in a row on October 1st, 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 405-414-18. 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 Atticus Templeton.
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 will carry two of Whitworth's games this season: the home opener on September 10th against Eastern Oregon and 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 Wildcats: After surviving a close 41-34 decision at playoff-contending Huntingdon (Ala.) in the first game, 7th-ranked Linfield outscored its next two opponents by a combined margin of 93-5, including last week's 72-2 win over Puget Sound in its NWC opener. The Wildcats are averaging 44.7 points and 429.7 yards per game, while giving up only 13.0 points and 228.3 yards per contest.
Joseph Smith, a life-long Wildcat, is in his 17th season as Linfield's head coach. He carries a 141-27 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, the two-time NWC Offensive Player of the Year in 2019 and 2021, has graduated. But Blake Eaton has stepped into the QB role admirably, completing 61.6% of his passes for 857 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions. He has several talented targets to throw to, led by junior receivers Joel Valdez and Devon Murray. Valdez has 12 receptions for 241 yards (20.1 ypc) with two touchdowns, while Murray has 16 catches for 190 yards and five touchdowns. Connor McNabb is the leading rusher with 133 yards and two touchdowns in 2021. Senior DE Travis Swanson, the 2021 NWC Defensive Player of the Year, already has 8.5 tackles for loss, including 5.5 sacks for 46 yards in three games. Junior LB Blake Rybar leads the team with 24 tackles, including 5.5 tackles for 19 yards in losses.
Puget Sound was never competitive in Linfield's 72-2 win over the Loggers on Saturday in McMinnville. The Wildcats led 42-2 at halftime, thanks in part to a pair of long punt return touchdowns by Maclain Stoneking in the second quarter. They scored 24 more points in the third quarter. Eaton played just over a half at QB and completed 16 of 30 passes for 287 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Murray caught only two passes and both went for touchdowns. Valdez had four receptions for 116 yards and a score. Defensively, Linfield sacked UPS quarterbacks eight times for 63 yards in losses. Swanson finished with five tackles, including two sacks for 24 yards. Rybar had six tackles, including a seven-yard sack.
The Series: Linfield leads the overall series 39-6-2. The Pirates ended an 11-game losing streak to the Wildcats in 2018. Linfield won the last game played in the Pine Bowl 38-31 in overtime in 2019. 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: Connor McNabb ran 64 yards for a touchdown on Linfield's first play from scrimmage and the Wildcats built a 35-0 halftime lead on the way to a 42-7 win over Whitworth on October 9, 2021 in McMinnville, Oregon. Linfield outgained the Pirates 508-246, including a 191-15 edge in rushing yards.
Jaedyn Prewitt played the second half at QB for the Pirates and completed 13 of 21 passes for 159 yards, and ran for Whitworth's only touchdown with a minute to play. Jarvis Natividad had four catches for 64 yards and Solomon Hines ran 13 times for 40 yards to lead the ground game.
BJ Mullin and Derrick Platt led the Whitworth defense with seven tackles apiece. Dylan Ventress made six stops, including the Pirates' only sack of the game.
Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros punted nine times for an average of 37.8 yards. Nate RaPue missed his only field goal attempt in the fourth quarter, only the second miss of his career. Linfield's special teams limited Whitworth's kickoff returns to an average of 14.6 yards.
Whitworth saw its nine-game winning streak come to an end.
Coming up next: Whitworth will play at Pacific Lutheran on October 15th.
