SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates have high hopes entering the 2022 football season, which kicks off this Friday evening (7:00 pm EDT) in Pittsburgh, Pa. at Carnegie Mellon University. It is the season opener for both teams and the second all-time meeting between the schools. The game will be heard live in Spokane on KSBN 1230am and on the internet at KSBN.net. The radio broadcast will begin at 3:45 pm (PDT).
Whitworth is coming off a 7-3 record in 2021, but the Pirates dropped their final two games of the regular season to fall from a strong contender for an NCAA Division III at-large berth to fourth place in the Northwest Conference standings (4-3). CMU (8-2, 8-1) bounced back from a season-opening loss at Whitworth and a conference-opening loss in the Presidents' Athletic Conference to claim the league title and an automatic berth in the NCAA playoffs.
The Pirates: With nine starters back on each side of the ball, Whitworth is full of experience. The Bucs hope that the experience and lessons learned at the end of last year pay dividends.
Whitworth returns four starters along the offensive line. Anthony Christopher, who is using his fifth year of eligibility, returns at right tackle where he earned first team All-NWC last season. Cody Bollig and AJ Sellem are in their third seasons as starters at left tackle and left guard, respectively. Chaz Evangelista is back as the starting center. Patton Miller, a sophomore, takes over as the starting right guard.
Jaedyn Prewitt outdueled Ryan Blair during training camp to retain his spot as the starting quarterback. Both performed well over the last two-plus weeks. Prewitt has completed 61% of his passes for 2,860 yards with 24 touchdowns and 8 interceptions over his career, which includes 12 starts. Several of his favorite targets are also back, including Kanen Ables, Ethan Peloquin, Matthew Fiesta and Cameron Sheley. Isaac Fields (TE) returns from injury, and the Pirates welcomed transfer Riley Morrison (Slot) from NCAA Div. II Simon Fraser. Evan Liggett and Dillon Kuk look to make breakthroughs after two years in the background.
Solo Hines will return as the starting tailback, where he led the team in rushing with 564 yards and 4.7 yards per carry, with eight touchdowns scored last season. He is also a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield (24 receptions, 306 yards). Isaiah Jones ran for 245 yards and four TDs in a backup role. Ryan Black is a transfer from Fullerton College (Calif.).
Whitworth is deep and talented in the secondary with three fifth-year senior starters who return from last season. Safeties BJ Mullin and Jacob Hogger, along with cornerback Colton Chelin, give Whitworth the luxury of a veteran secondary. Hogger led Whitworth with four interceptions, including two game-saving picks. Chelin is a five-year starter. Mullin is a two-time winner of Whitworth Football's Torchbearer Award, the team's highest post-season honor. Tiliti Adams has earned the starting nod at the other corner. Atticus Templeton is a veteran backup safety.
Dylan Ventress, Derrick Platt and Patrick Serrano return as starting linebackers. Ventress and Platt play on the inside and provide run support. Serrano is the OLB who often drops into the secondary and who had two interceptions, including a touchdown, last season. Serrano had 63 tackles, while Platt and Ventress followed with 45 and 42, respectively. Shane Modena is an experienced backup at linebacker who will also see plenty of action.
The Pirate defensive line is paradoxically both young, and experienced, because of injuries over the last two seasons. Mason Bertelli is in his second season as a starter on one end. Dylan Owen will start at the other end after he led the team in tackles for loss (7.5), despite not becoming a starter until the second half of 2021. Backup Jack Gibson also has starting experience on the end.
Justin Gies (DT) and Alex Smith (NT) will start on the interior. Jake O'Donnell and Natan DePaolo will provide backup.
A Long Way from Home: Carnegie Mellon will be Whitworth's first-ever road trip to the Eastern Time Zone. The Tartans are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, nearly 2,300 miles from Spokane. Previous opponents that held the mark for longest football trip from campus include Hardin-Simmons (Abilene, Texas – 1,800 miles) and Wisconsin-Stout (Menomonie, Wis. – 1,230 miles).
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.
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).
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 2019 season, running his streak to 33 in a row. He could end his career with the most starts of any player in Whitworth history. He has eight career interceptions and 35 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 last October 16th vs. PLU. The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 402-413-18. 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.
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.
Winning the Opener: Following a season-opening victory over Carnegie Mellon in 2021, Whitworth has 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.
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 the October 8th 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 Tartans: Carnegie Mellon University is a top-flight academic institution in Pittsburgh and the Tartans are members of the Presidents' Athletic Conference for football and members of the University Athletic Association for all other sports. They went 8-2 overall and 8-1 in the PAC last season, earning the conference title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs. However, CMU was unable to play its first round game because of COVID-19 and it officially went down as a no-contest.
Head coach Ryan Larson is in his first season after coming over from Columbia University (Ivy League), where he was the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator.
The Tartans' offense will work behind running back Tre Vasiliadis, a third team preseason All-American (D3football.com), who led the PAC with 1,120 rushing yards and a 112.0 rushing yards per game average. His 16 rushing touchdowns and 102 points scored ranked second in the league and 13th nationally. Ben Mills, a junior, returns as the starting QB after he completed 48.1% of his passes for 1,335 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions.
Junior inside linebacker Robert Coury, a second team D3football.com preseason All-American, will lead the stout Tartan defense that led the PAC in scoring defense and ranked second in the nation allowing 8.7 points per game. The Cardinal and Gray also led their league in total defense (246.7 yards per contest) forced a league-best 31 turnovers and led the PAC with 35 sacks. Coury led the team in tackles (82) and recorded 10 tackles for a loss. Punter Casey Jaeb was a 2021 D3football.com preseason All-American (second team).
Last Season: Whitworth opened a 13-0 lead at halftime and hung on in the second half as Jacob Hogger intercepted a pass in the endzone with 17 seconds left to play to preserve the Pirates' season-opening 13-10 victory over the Tartans.
The Pirate defense held the Tartans to 288 yards and came up with two interceptions. Derrick Platt led the team with eight tackles, including an eight-yard sack. BJ Mullin made seven stops.
The offense finished with 307 total yards, but only 16 yards in the fourth quarter when the Bucs had a chance to put the game out of reach. Jaedyn Prewitt completed 19 of 38 passes for 207 yards with an interception. CMU defenders sacked him four times for 32 yards. Matthew Fiesta had four receptions for 46 yards. Solo Hines ran 11 times for 54 yards in his debut.
Nate RaPue made both of his field goal attempts, extending his consecutive makes streak to eight over two seasons. Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros punted seven times for an average of 40.4 yards. Fiesta averaged 7.7 yards on four punt returns and 26.5 yards per kickoff return.
The Series: Whitworth and Carnegie Mellon will meet for only the second time. The Pirates have never played another member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference and the Tartans have never played another school from the Northwest Conference.
Coming up next: Whitworth will play its 2022 home opener against old NAIA rival Eastern Oregon on Saturday, September 10th. The Mountaineers and Pirates last met in 2005.
