SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates will open Northwest Conference play with a game at Lewis & Clark College on Saturday in Portland, Oregon. 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 (2-1) is coming off a bye, while Lewis & Clark (2-0) played an exhibition game against Lewis-Clark Valley and won 79-8.
The Pirates: Whitworth pulled out a 12-7 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in the Pine Bowl on September 17th, scoring the winning touchdown with only 1:25 left on the clock. The Bucs had not led at any prior point in the game, despite finishing with a 251-148 edge in total offense.
The Whitworth defense allowed CMS to score on its first possession, a 77-yard drive. The Stags gained only 71 yards of offense the rest of the game. Patrick Serrano had nine tackles and forced a fumble, while Dylan Ventress made eight stops. Derrick Platt recorded six tackles, including two sacks for 12 yards. One of those sacks was a safety that got Whitworth on the scoreboard in the second quarter. Whitworth finished with four sacks totaling 27 yards in losses. Colton Chelin had four solo tackles and broke up a pair of passes.
Ryan Blair led the offense by completing 24 of 31 passes for 202 yards with one touchdown and one interception, which came off a bad bounce on a deflected pass. Logan Kitselman caught the game-winning touchdown pass. Cameron Sheley caught five passes for 32 yards, while Issac Fields and Riley Morrison had four receptions apiece. Isaiah Jones ran the ball nine times for 31 yards.
Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros remained perfect kicking field goals and extra points. His 43-yard field goal as time expired in the second quarter was a career-best distance. He is 4-4 on field goal attempts and 6-6 on extra points this year. Campos-Ontiveros punted four times for an average of 29.8 yards. Matthew Fiesta averaged 20.5 yards per kickoff return.
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 37 in a row on September 17th, 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 404-414-18. 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.
A Long Way from Home: Carnegie Mellon was Whitworth's first-ever road trip to the Eastern Time Zone. The game was played in 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. Last week it was Daniel McKeirnan.
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 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 Pioneers: Lewis & Clark is off to a hot start under first year head coach Joe Bushman in 2022. The Pioneers opened with a dominating win over NWC-foe Puget Sound, then crushed Whittier 44-13 on the road on September 17th. Last weekend L&C rolled past Lewis-Clark Valley in an exhibition contest.
Bushman had served as offensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator and assistant head coach under Jay Locey, who announced his retirement last February. Prior to joining the staff at L&C, Bushman was a successful high school coach in the Portland area for 20 years.
Not surprisingly, the Pioneers' offense has been firing on all cylinders so far this season, led by junior RB Dyontae Navarette, who has picked up 242 yards and scored four touchdowns in two games. Senior QB Montana Cruz, a 2021 honorable mention All-NWC selection, has completed 70% of his passes for 501 yards with five touchdowns and two interceptions. His favorite target is junior WR Devon Guest, who has 18 receptions for 233 yards and three touchdowns. Senior LB Sam Meinhard leads the defense with 18 tackles, including 3.5 for losses totaling 21 yards.
On September 17th, in their most recent official game, the Pioneers won 44-13 at Whittier College (Calif.), outgaining the Poets 501-256. Cruz completed 24-34 passes for 270 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions. Guest caught 11 passes for 142 yards and two scores. Navarette ran only 13 times for 132 yards (10.2 ypc) and two touchdowns. Meinhard made ten tackles, including two sacks totaling 15 yards.
The Series: Whitworth leads the all-time series 38-13 and the Bucs have won 21 of the last 22 contests. The Pioneers' 30-22 win in 2011 is their only victory in that stretch. The Pirates won the last game played in Portland 68-30 in 2019. Whitworth won the 2006 game 70-3, the largest margin of victory for either team. The biggest margin of victory for Lewis & Clark was 49-26 in 1993. Lewis & Clark won the first-ever meeting between the schools, 19-0 in 1956.
Last Meeting: Whitworth started slowly, but eventually improved to 4-0 in last season's 35-17 win over visiting Lewis & Clark. Whitworth's offense had its best game of the season to that point, rolling up 576 total yards and 30 first downs. The Pirates converted 11 of 18 third downs into first downs. Solomon Hines had one of his best games in a Whitworth uniform, running for 79 yards and a touchdown, while catching four passes for 137 yards and an 88-yard TD. 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. Derrick Platt had two tackles for losses of nine yards, including one that forced a fumble in the fourth quarter.
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. Alvaro 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.
Coming up next: Whitworth will host Linfield University on October 8th to celebrate Homecoming and Family Weekend festivities.
