SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates will play their 2022 home opener against Eastern Oregon University, a former longtime rival that hasn't been to the Pine Bowl in 18 years. 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). Local television station SWX will televise the game in Spokane on channel 6.2 and regionally on other outlets.
Whitworth is coming off a 35-17 loss at Carnegie Mellon in the season opener in Pittsburgh, Pa. Eastern Oregon is 0-2 following a 48-14 loss at Montana-Western.
The Pirates: Carnegie Mellon broke open a close game with a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns, including a 43-yard interception return for a score, to defeat Whitworth 35-17 in the season opener.
The Pirate offense was able to move the ball effectively through the air, but struggled on the ground. Whitworth generated 459 passing yards, but finished with -3 yards rushing, thanks in part to three sacks for -27 yards. Jaedyn Prewitt completed 34 of 47 passes for 404 yards with two interceptions and one touchdown. Ryan Blair played the final series and went 7-10 for 55 yards. Dillon Kuk finished with seven grabs for 149 yards and his 79-yard reception in the second quarter set up Whitworth's first touchdown. Evan Liggett caught eight passes for 110 yards. Both Kuk and Liggett started for the first time in their careers. Riley Morrison had eight receptions for 45 yards. Whitworth committed three key penalties on offense that cost the Pirates 69 yards and two good scoring opportunities.
The defense kept Whitworth in the game for three quarters, but missed tackles led directly to the Tartan's first two touchdowns, including a 99-yard score on a short slant midway through the second quarter. Dylan Ventress had eight tackles, while Patrick Serrano and Derrick Platt each made six stops. However, the Pirate defense did not cause enough disruption, finishing with only one sack and no turnovers.
Alvaro Campos-Ontiveros handled all the kicking duties in the opener. He made a 40-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to pull Whitworth to within 14-10 at the break. He also punted eight times for an average of 34.8 yards. Matthew Fiesta returned three punts for 23 yards and four kickoffs for 61 yards. The kickoff coverage squad held CMU to 9.5 yards per return.
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 Zach Loveless.
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 35 in a row last Friday. 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 October 16, 2021 in a Homecoming game vs. PLU. The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 402-414-18. 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, 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.
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 Mountaineers: Eastern Oregon University, located in LaGrande, Oregon, competes as part of the NAIA Frontier Conference. The Mountaineers are 0-2 this season after a pair of tough league-counters to start the fall. EOU fell 48-14 at NAIA #17 Montana Western last Saturday and opened on August 27 at home with a 38-3 loss to Montana Tech. EOU is coming off a 4-6 campaign in 2021.
Head coach Tim Camp is in his 15th season guiding the Mountaineers. He is the all-time winningest coach in school history with a record of 78-69 to date.
Andrew James, who had split time at QB in the first two games, is tentatively listed as the starter for Saturday. He has completed 4 of 13 passes for 24 yards with one interception, and run nine times for 45 yards. Sophomore running back Anthony Peterson has picked up 46 net yards on 20 carries. RS sophomore Malachi Spurrier is a weapon at WR with seven catches for 135 yards and one score. Seniors Josh Mendoza and Zak Donato lead the defense with 18 and 16 tackles, respectively. The pair have combined for 5.5 tackles for losses totaling 13 yards.
Last week Montana Western jumped to a 34-7 lead at halftime and cruised to a 48-14 win over visiting Eastern Oregon in Dillon. The 17th-ranked Bulldogs outgained the Mountaineers 419-221, including 180-40 edge in rushing yards. EOU turned the ball over five times in the game. Luke Ross was the starter at quarterback and completed 15 of 24 passes for 181 yards. Spurrier had all seven of his catches in that game, including a 65-yard touchdown. Donato led the defense with nine tackles and he forced and recovered a fumble.
Last Meeting: Whitworth led 7-3 at halftime, but Eastern Oregon rallied for a 24-14 win in La Grande on October 1, 2005. Mountaineer running back Tyrone Gross ran for 161 yards and three touchdowns.
The Series: Eastern leads the overall series 16-15-2. The Mountaineers defeated the Pirates 24-14 in the last meeting to retake the lead in the series. The Pirates had won five in a row in the series prior to 2005, including the last game played in the Pine Bowl, a 31-28 victory in 2004. EOU and Whitworth played each other 28 years in a row from 1978 through 2005. The biggest Whitworth win in the series was 42-6 in 1987. The biggest Eastern win was 63-20 in 1991.
Coming up next: Whitworth will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a non-conference Division III game on Saturday, September 17th at 1:00 pm.
