SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth football team will play its first official home game of the 2023 season and will open its Northwest Conference schedule at the same time when the Pirates host Pacific Lutheran University on Military Appreciation Day on Saturday in the Pine Bowl. The game will kick off at 1:00 pm and can be heard live on KSBN 1230am and on KSBN.net.
Whitworth (2-0) is coming off a bye week following a 24-17 win at Chapman University on September 16th. The Lutes (1-2) are also coming off a bye and picked up their first win of 2023 with a 37-27 victory over Cal Lutheran on the 16th. Check the Whitworth football schedule above for live coverage of the game.
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.
Military Appreciation Day: Saturday is Military Appreciation Day at Whitworth football. The game will feature a skydiving demonstration and flyover by a vintage Air Force plane. Halftime events will include a coining ceremony performed by Whitworth President Scott McQuilkin. Admission is FREE for all members of the military/veterans and their families. Please visit the red Whitworth "Serving our Veterans" tent just outside the entrance on game day to pick up your free tickets.
The Pirates: Whitworth scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to rally from a 17-10 deficit to a 24-17 win at Chapman two Saturdays ago. Daniel McKeirnan's interception with just under two minutes left in the game sealed the victory for the Pirates in their only night game of the season.
McKeirnan's interception capped an outstanding performance by the Whitworth defense against an explosive Chapman offense. After allowing 266 yards in the opening half, the Pirates limited the Panthers to 116 yards in the second half, including only 44 yards in the fourth quarter (three possession). McKeirnan had five solo tackles and a pass break up to go with his interception. Tiliti Adams led the team with seven tackles and two pass break ups, while Dylan Ventress made five stops and forced a fumble.
Luis Salgado was selected as the NWC's Offensive Student-Athlete of the Week for football after he rushed for 95 yards on 18 carries (5.3 ypc) and scored the game-winning touchdown on an eight-yard run with 6:26 to play in the game. Fellow running back Solo Hines finished with 132 all-purpose yards (58 receiving, 54 KO returns and 20 rushing). Austin Ewing started at quarterback and completed 17 of 28 passes for 217 yards with one touchdown. His one-yard run tied the game at 17-17 at the start of the fourth quarter. Ryan Blair directed the game-winning drive, completing 4 of 6 passes for 66 yards, including a third and 10 completion to Salgado. Evan Liggett led the receivers with six catches for 92 yards, including a 27-yard touchdown.
For the second straight week, Whitworth got what it needed from the special teams. Iden Bone made one out of two field goal attempts and averaged 60 yards per kickoff. Spencer King averaged 37.5 yards per punt with a long of 44 yards. The game turned on a key play at the start of the fourth quarter when Chapman was called for a leaping penalty on a blocked field goal attempt that could have pulled the Pirates to within 17-13. Whitworth turned the automatic first down into a game-tying touchdown.
West Coast Crossover: September 16th was part of a crossover weekend between the Northwest Conference and the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. In addition to Whitworth's win at Chapman, Pacific Lutheran defeated California Lutheran and Linfield won at Redlands. George Fox lost at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, Pacific (Ore.) fell at Pomona-Pitzer and La Verne won at Puget Sound, ending the weekend with three victories for each conference. 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 game was linebacker Zach Brooks.
Whitworth's special teams captains, week by week: Sept. 2 – LS Marcus Viramontes; Sept. 9 – KR Cameron Sheley; Sept. 16 – LB Zach Brooks.
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 409-417-18. 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.
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.
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 Lutes: Pacific Lutheran is 1-2 and, like Whitworth, coming off a bye week. The Lutes opened with consecutive losses in defensive standoffs against Redlands and Concordia (Minn.), before the offense came together in a 37-27 victory over visiting Cal Lutheran on September 16th. PLU averages 24.0 points and 330.3 yards per game and allows 25.7 points and only 271 yards per contest.
Brant McAdams is in his sixth season as head coach at PLU and led the team to its best season in a decade in 2022 (6-4 overall, 5-2 NWC). McAdams was previously the defensive coordinator at Trinity (Texas), his alma mater, for five seasons. He was also the defensive coordinator at Puget Sound for three years prior to Trinity.
Senior linebacker Kalen Davis-White leads the stout Lute defense with 26 tackles, including 4.5 sacks for 31 yards in only three games. He's forced one fumble. Senior DB Colby Rhinelander was an honorable mention All-NWC honoree last season and he has 20 tackles and five pass breakups already in 2023. He's forced a fumble and recovered a fumble. Running back Rayson Motoyama has rushed for 142 yards (4.6 ypc) and two touchdowns. Junior QB Darius Chaffin is 46 of 67 (69%) for 597 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions. He's also run for 116 yards and two scores. Senior WR Manuel Felan has 14 receptions for 247 yards and a touchdown in only two games. Junior WR Patrick McInerney averages 18.8 yards per catch and has two touchdowns.
PLU led 27-10 at halftime on the way to a 37-27 win over visiting CLU on Sept. 16. The Lutes held a 377-228 edge in total offense, holding the Kingsmen to only 12 net rushing yards. Chaffin completed 9 of 11 passes for 131 yards with one touchdown and ran for 86 yards (6.1 ypc) and another touchdown. Motoyama rushed for 94 yards and two scores as the Lutes rolled up 233 yards on the ground. Felan caught six passes for 115 yards and one touchdown. Davis-White led the defense with nine tackles, including 2.5 sacks for 17 yards. Rhinelander had five tackles and three pass deflections.
Last Meeting: Whitworth never sustained any offensive momentum in last season's 28-7 loss at Pacific Lutheran. The Pirates had four second half drives end in Lute territory, but came away with no points after an interception, a fumble and two stops on fourth down. PLU ended an eight-game losing streak to Whitworth.
The Pirate offense suffered a blow in the first half when starting QB Ryan Blair left with an ankle injury after Whitworth's second possession. With back up Jaedyn Prewitt unavailable, true freshman Logan Lacio came in to complete 25 of 36 passes for 263 yards with one touchdown and one interception. PLU sacked Lacio four times for 37 yards in losses. Logan Kitselman ran for Whitworth's only touchdown in the second quarter, briefly pulling the Bucs within 14-7. However, Whitworth finished the game with -6 yards rushing. Evan Liggett caught five passes for 88 yards and the Pirates finished with 272 yards of total offense.
The Whitworth defense had some strong moments. The Pirates also watched PLU drive for a touchdown in the final seconds of the first half to extend the lead to 21-7 after Whitworth had pulled within a touchdown. The defense limited the Lutes to only 86 yards in the second half. Dylan Ventress had a career-high 15 tackles in the game. Unfortunately, the Pirate defense could not get enough pressure on the PLU offense and finished with only two tackles for loss and no sacks.
The Series: No other opponent has more wins against Whitworth than PLU. The Lutes lead the all-time series 52-27. It has been a series featuring winning streaks by each team. The Lutes won the first nine meetings between the schools. The Pirates won seven in a row from 1959 through 1964, outscoring PLU 310 – 28 during that stretch with six straight shutouts. Between 1966 and 2001, PLU won 32 straight games against the Bucs. The Pirates won six in a row from 2004-09, then the Lutes won five straight from 2010-14. Whitworth had won eight in a row until last season. The largest winning margin in the series is a 67-0 win for the Pirates in 1961. PLU's biggest margin of victory is 47-0 in 1970. The first meeting was a 27-0 victory for the Lutes in 1931.
Coming up next: Whitworth will travel to Salem, Oregon to take on Willamette University on October 7th in the Bearcats' first home game of the season.
