SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth football team plays its second straight non-conference road game this coming weekend when the Pirates travel to Orange, California to take on the Chapman University Panthers. The only night game on Whitworth's schedule, kickoff is slated for 7:00 pm at Earnie Chapman Stadium and can be heard live on KSBN 1230am and on KSBN.net.
Whitworth is coming off 42-28 win at Eastern Oregon last Saturday. Chapman is officially playing its first game. The Panthers were on the way to a season-opening win at Pacific (Ore.) on September 2nd when the game was cancelled because of persistent lightning in the area, officially becoming a no-contest. Check the Whitworth football schedule above for live coverage of the game.
The Pirates: Whitworth defeated Eastern Oregon 42-28 in La Grande, Oregon last Saturday in a game that appeared to turn completely in the Pirates' favor after one key sequence. With the Pirates trailing 14-7 late in the first half, Daniel McKeirnan's interception and return to the EOU 27 was followed three plays later by a touchdown pass that tied the game with 16 seconds left on the clock. Whitworth scored on its first three possessions of the second half and eventually led 42-14 before the Mountaineers scored two late touchdowns.
Dillon Kuk was the star of the Whitworth offense, hauling in three touchdown passes – including a one-handed catch with a defender in close coverage. He finished with six catches for 102 yards to earn Northwest Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors. Austin Ewing started the game at quarterback and completed 15 of 20 passes for 169 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He left the game after consecutive hard hits on the Pirates' first drive of the second half, but is expected to be full-go for this week. Ryan Blair came into the game and completed 9 of 11 passes for 149 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. In addition to Kuk, Evan Liggett had a strong day catching the ball with four receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown. Running back Solo Hines caught the touchdown pass right before halftime. While 318 of Whitworth's 392 yards came through the air, the Bucs struggled to establish a consistent running game as EOU stacked the box to stop the run. Luis Salgado picked up 42 yards on 13 carries, including an 11-yard touchdown run in the second half.
McKeirnan led the defense with nine tackles, including seven solo stops. Zach Brooks added eight tackles, while Caleb Shawen finished with seven, including three tackles for loss. Atticus Templeton made a big stop on fourth down, intercepted a pass and broke up two others. He had six tackles. Ryan Kinney picked off Whitworth's third interception of the game. Early in the third quarter Zach Loveless forced a fumble that Tiliti Adams recovered, allowing the Pirates to win the turnover battle 4-2. The Pirates also forced EOU to turn the ball over on downs five times in the game as the Mountaineers finished 1 of 6 on fourth down attempts.
Whitworth got what it needed from the special teams. Iden Bone made all six of his extra point attempts and averaged just over 60 yards per kickoff. Spencer King averaged 37.4 yards per punt with a long of 45 yards. Whitworth did not attempt a field goal. The Pirates' only lost fumble came on a punt return late in the game.
West Coast Crossover: Saturday's game is part of a crossover weekend between the Northwest Conference and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. In addition to Saturday night's game in Orange, California Lutheran will visit PLU, George Fox travels to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, La Verne goes to Puget Sound, Linfield takes on Redlands and Pacific heads to Pomona-Pitzer. With Occidental and Whitter dropping their football programs in the last couple of years, that leaves two NWC schools without a cross-over opponent. Lewis & Clark will play Montana Western and Willamette will visit Southern Oregon. Last season the NWC went 6-1 against the SCIAC on the crossover weekend, including Whitworth's 12-7 win over CMS.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2023 are WR Dylan Ashbeck and QB Ryan Blair from the offense and safety Atticus Templeton and CB Tiliti Adams from the defense. A special forces captain will be selected on a week-by-week basis. Last week was kick returner Cameron Sheley.
Whitworth's special teams captains, week by week: Sept. 2 – LS Marcus Viramontes; Sept. 9 – KR Cameron Sheley.
Looking Back at 2022: Whitworth posted its ninth consecutive winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg, extending the longest stretch of winning campaigns in school history with a 28-17 win at Pacific (Ore.) on Nov. 5. A season-ending 28-14 loss to George Fox dropped the Pirates from a tie for second place to fourth place in the final Northwest Conference standings. Whitworth suffered back-to-back losses to Linfield and Pacific Lutheran early in the NWC schedule, costing the Pirates a chance at the league title. Whitworth opened the season with a 35-17 loss at eventual NCAA Division III playoff participant Carnegie Mellon (Pa.) before defeating Eastern Oregon and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
Leading the Evergreen State: Since Rod Sandberg took over as head coach in 2014, Whitworth has the best winning percentage of any football playing university in Washington State. Heading into 2023, the Pirates are 64-21 since 2014, a winning percentage of .753. That figure is better than the University of Washington (73-37, .664), Washington State (61-46, .570), Eastern Washington (72-35, .673), Central Washington (59-28, .678), Pacific Lutheran (34-42, .447) and Puget Sound (33-48, .407).
400+: Whitworth won for the 400th time in school history on October 16, 2021 vs. PLU. The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 408-417-18. 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 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.
Nine in a Row: With the win over Pacific (Ore.) last November, Whitworth clinched its ninth consecutive winning season under head coach Rod Sandberg. That extended the longest streak of winning campaigns in school history. The previous long streak of seven was set between 1959 and 1965.
Winning the Opener: Whitworth has won eight of its ten season-openers under head coach Rod Sandberg, including last week's win at Eastern Oregon. The Pirates are 5-1 at home and 3-1 on the road. Whitworth's only season-opening losses under Sandberg came in 2016 and 2022.
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 ninth season as the voice of the Pirates in 2023. 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.
One SWX Broadcast: Local cable station SWX will carry Whitworth's Homecoming contest against Puget Sound on October 14th. 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.
The Head Coach: In nine 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 64-21 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 .753 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 20 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 Panthers: Chapman University is unexpectedly 0-0 heading into Saturday's game. The Panthers, who finished 7-3 last season, flew to Oregon to take on Pacific University on September 2nd, but the game was called off with just under 11 minutes to play in the third quarter because of persistent lightning in the area. The game officially became a no-contest.
Head coach Bob Owens has led the Panthers since 2006 and has a 106-96 record as their head coach. But the last six seasons are the most successful stretch of results in school history. Chapman is 40-18 over that span with two Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference titles. He was the D3football.com West Region Coach of the Year in 2019 after leading the Panthers to a 10-1 record and the second round of the NCAA Division III playoffs.
Chapman is a favorite to contend for the 2023 SCIAC title for good reason. The Panthers return 11 all-conference honorees from last season, including a pair of all-star kickers. Punter Owen Tapia was a D3football.com 2022 3rd team All-American and is a preseason D3football All-American in 2023, while place kicker Ken Baierl earned all-league recognition in 2022. Senior QB Nathaniel Espinoza earned first team All-SCIAC honors last fall after he threw for 2,647 yards and 29 touchdowns and ran for 170 yards and two scores. The entire offensive line, which allowed only eight sacks all 2022, returns, including All-SCIAC left tackle Donovan Porter. Running back Marcos Reyes was the SCIAC Newcomer of the Year in 2019 and he ran for 443 yards (7.1 yards per carry) and five touchdowns last fall. Much of the front seven returns on defense for Chapman, including first team All-SCIAC linebacker Alexander Terriquez, who finished with 86 tackles, including 10 tackles for losses of 40 yards. Fellow linebacker Kade Jordan made 51 stops, including nine tackles for losses of 46 yards.
The Panthers were dominating at Pacific on September 2nd, leading 24-0 when the game was called. Chapman had already rolled up over 200 rushing yards in the game, but none of the stats are official after the game was declared a no-contest.
Last Meeting: Whitworth fell behind 27-13 at halftime and could not come all the way back in a 37-30 road loss to Chapman on September 21st. The Pirates scored a touchdown with 1:09 to play to pull within a touchdown, but the ensuing on-sides kick attempt was not successful.
Whitworth never established a consistent running game and finished with only 30 net yards on the ground. QB Leif Ericksen threw for 388 yards and four touchdowns but completed less than 50% of his passes (32-67, 47.8%) and threw an interception. Taylor Kolste caught eight passes for 62 yards and two touchdowns. After allowing no negative-yardage plays in a season-opening win the previous week, the Pirates gave up ten tackles-for-loss at Chapman, including five sacks.
The Whitworth defense allowed 456 yards of offense, including big plays on the ground and through the air. Zach Hillman was one of the team leaders with seven tackles and added a diving interception in the first half. Charlie Ball got the Pirates' only sack of the game.
Two big special teams plays came in the second quarter when Chapman scored three touchdowns. The first was a fumbled punt that allowed the Panthers to start at the Pirates' 14-yard line. The second was a blocked punt that set up Chapman at the Whitworth eight-yard line. Both led directly to Panther touchdowns.
The Series: Whitworth holds a 7-4 advantage in the all-time series and won the first meeting 49-22 in Spokane in 2000. Three of Chapman's wins have come in California –in 2011, 2013 and 2019. Whitworth's largest margin of victory in this series was a 37-7 victory in Orange in 2015. The Panthers' 21-point win in 2013 (38-17) is their largest margin of victory.
Coming up next: Whitworth will get a bye week on September 23rd before hosting Pacific Lutheran in the Northwest Conference opener at 1:00 pm on September 30th.
