SPOKANE, Wash. – The Whitworth Pirates got what they wanted from last week's season-opening 52-0 exhibition victory over Pacific Northwest Christian College. The games begin for real this weekend as the Pirates take on Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Oregon. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 pm at Community Stadium and can be heard live on KSBN 1230am and on KSBN.net.
Whitworth is coming off a 6-4 record in 2022, including a fourth place in the Northwest Conference standings (4-3). Eastern Oregon (0-1) dropped its season opener to Montana Western last Saturday. Check the Whitworth football schedule above for live coverage of the game.
The Pirates: Whitworth had a chance to play virtually every eligible and healthy player on the roster in last Saturday's 52-0 exhibition victory over Pacific Northwest Christian College. The game does not count toward official records or statistics because PNCC is a two-year institution. The Pirates held the Gladiators to 65 total yards of offense and allowed PNCC into Whitworth territory only once in the game.
Nearly 50 players saw action on defense and 31 different players made a tackle, pass break up or blocked a kick. First-year defensive end Lucas Reynolds led the Pirates with four tackles, including two sacks. Luke Jacobson, another first year defensive lineman, had three tackles, including two for loss. Whitworth finished the game with 11 tackles for loss.
Similarly, nearly every available player saw time on offense. Five different Pirates played quarterback and four threw passes. Ryan Blair, the second QB in the game, completed 7 of 10 passes for 99 yards and threw the game's only touchdown pass – a 45-yard strike to Evan Liggett. Starter Austin Ewing completed 2 of 8 passes for 23 yards. Renat Mamikonyan Jr. went 5 of 8 for 43 yards, while Noah Stifle finished 1-2 for 12 yards. Liggett led the receivers with three catches for 70 yards. Eleven different Pirates caught a pass, and only Liggett and Michael Workman caught more than one. Not including quarterbacks, eight different ball carriers had at least one rushing attempt in the game. Isaiah Jones led the way with 50 yards on eight carries, while first year Kurt Solano picked up 45 yards on eight attempts. Luis Salgado carried the ball only once, but that was a 24-yard touchdown on the Pirates' first possession. Luke Roberts, Manual Parada and Nathan Owens also ran for touchdowns.
Whitworth's special teams also played a big role. The Pirates punted only once, and Spencer King's effort went for 39 yards. Iden Bone made a 28-yard field goal and all four of his extra points. Alberto Solano made two PATs and King made one. That trio averaged 58.6 yards per kickoff. Whitworth limited PNCC to 17.5 yards per kickoff return, on eight attempts. Colin Fulton took the Pirates' only kickoff return back 27 yards. Chris Holt averaged 14.6 yards on five punt returns.
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.
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 seven of its nine season-openers under head coach Rod Sandberg, including last year's 35-17 loss at Carnegie Mellon. The Pirates are 5-1 at home and 2-1 on the road. Whitworth's only other 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 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 Mountaineers: Eastern Oregon is a member of the NAIA and the Frontier Conference. The Mountaineers are coming off a 2-9 record in 2022 and opened this season with a 38-14 loss to Montana Western at home last Saturday.
Head coach Tim Camp is in his 16th season guiding the Mountaineers. He is the all-time winningest coach in school history with a record of 80-76 to date.
EOU added a huge offensive weapon for the 2023 season with the transfer of quarterback Quincy Glasper from Central Washington. Glasper was the 2021 GNAC Offensive Player of the Year for CWU. He completed 27 of 44 passes for 258 yards with two touchdowns and one interception last week. Junior WR Colton Kesey caught four of those passes for 45 yards and one touchdown. Montana Western limited EOU to 66 net rushing yards (2.2 ypc). Junior RB Aiden Patterson carried six times for 24 yards. Sophomore linebacker Jason Grant had seven tackles, including one sack. Defensive back Josh Mendoza picked off one pass and broke up two others.
Last Season: Whitworth broke open its game with EOU with three fourth quarter touchdowns on the way to a 33-7 win in the Pine Bowl. The Pirates outgained the Mountaineers 415-222 and had a 4-2 edge in turnovers. Whitworth had a possession advantage of 37:27 – 22:33.
Ryan Blair completed 29 of 40 passes for 316 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in his first start. Both touchdown passes went to Evan Liggett, who finished with seven catches for 73 yards. Riley Morrison had eight receptions for 71 yards. One week after being held to -3 rushing yards, the Pirates opened more holes and netted 100 yards on the ground. Solo Hines ran five times for 33 yards (6.6 ypc) before leaving the game. Isaiah Jones picked up 41 yards on 14 attempts.
The defense limited the Mountaineers to 13 first downs and took the ball away at key moments in the game. EOU netted only 94 yards passing in the game. Colten Chelin finished with eight tackles, including one for loss. He forced one fumble and recovered another. He also broke up a pair of passes. Dylan Ventress made seven tackles.
The Series: After last season, the series is tied 16-16-2. 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. The last game played at Community Stadium was a 24-14 win for EOU in 2005.
Coming up next: Whitworth will head to Southern California to take on Chapman University on September 16th in the Pirates' only night game of the season. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
