SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth will close out the 2025 regular season with a home game against Puget Sound on Saturday at noon in the Pine Bowl. The Pirates will clinch an outright Northwest Conference title with a victory over the Loggers. Saturday's contest will stream live on FloSports.
The Pirates (7-2 overall, 6-0 NWC) are coming off a 29-0 win at Willamette. UPS is 1-8, 1-5 following a 77-14 home loss to Linfield last Saturday.
Senior Saturday: Whitworth will honor 17 seniors on Saturday prior to kickoff. The group has posted a collective record of 27-5 over the last three seasons.
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 their own student ID number to purchase a ticket.
The Pirates: Whitworth clinched the Northwest Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs with last Saturday's 29-0 win at Willamette. It was not only the Pirates' first shutout of the season, but it is also the first shutout by any school in the NWC this fall.
The defense was especially dominant in the first half, holding Willamette to a single first down and 36 total yards. The Bearcats finished the game with 134 yards of offense and only 19:50 in time of possession. Whitworth had a 3-1 advantage in turnover margin. Wyatt Hess picked off his team-leading third pass of the season while Omari Williams made his second interception, which came in the endzone to prevent a score. Chayce Gomes recovered a fumble on a punt. Drew Cody tied his season-high with 13 tackles, and added a pass breakup on third down. Hunter Letteer made seven stops.
Luis Salgado ran for 126 yards on 23 carries to become only the fourth player in school history to surpass 3,000 yards in a career. He ran 17 yards for the Pirates' second touchdown in the second quarter. Owen Harris picked up a career-high 44 yards on nine carries as the primary backup. Logan Lacio completed 26 of 31 passes for 197 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He threw four-yard touchdown passes to Gomes and Deacon Deitz. Deitz finished with five receptions for 30 yards, while Nate Peterson had four for 26 yards.
Iden Bone made both of his field goal attempts, from 28 and 36 yards. He has tied the Whitworth school record for most field goals in a season with 14 and can break Rehn Reiley's record with one more conversion. Whitworth only punted three times in the game and Matthew Herzog averaged 41.3 yards per kick. Jake Gaffaney averaged 61.2 yards per kickoff and had a pair of touchbacks.
NCAA Berth Clinched: Whitworth is alone atop the NWC standings with a 6-0 record with Linfield in second place at 5-1. The Pirates hold the tiebreaker against the Wildcats, based on the head-to-head result. With only one game left, the best Linfield can do is tie with the Pirates atop the standings. A win on Saturday would give Whitworth the outright title for the second time in the last three seasons and third time under head coach Rod Sandberg.
NCAA Announcement Watch Party: The NCAA will announce the 40-team Division III playoff field on Sunday afternoon. The Pirate team will gather in the Robinson Teaching Theater to watch the announcement together. Fans, friends and family are invited to join in the festivities.
Power of 12: With the win over PLU on November 1, Whitworth clinched its 12th 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.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2025 are RB Luis Salgado and TE Taylor Wells from the offense and safety Trey Rose and DL Lane Watkins from the defense. Senior WR Dawson Tobeck was the special teams captain vs. Willamette. A new special forces captain is selected by the coaches on a week-by-week basis.
The Oregon Trail: Whitworth made four trips to the Willamette Valley this season. The Pirates defeated Pacific University (Oct. 4), Linfield University (Oct. 18), Lewis & Clark (Oct. 25) and Willamette (Nov. 8). The 2025 season is the first time Whitworth has had four NWC games in Oregon since Rod Sandberg took over as head coach.
Road Warriors: Whitworth has won 13 consecutive Northwest Conference road games, dating to the 2022 schedule. It is the longest conference road winning streak in school history.
Value the Ball: Whitworth has taken great care of the football in 2025. The Pirates lead the NWC and rank sixth in NCAA Division III with only six turnovers allowed. The Bucs have lost three fumbles and had three passes intercepted in eight games.
Running Man: Luis Salgado is a two-time first team All-Northwest Conference honoree. He has gained 3,083 yards in his career with a 5.9 yards per carry average and has run for 32 touchdowns. Also a threat catching the ball out of the backfield, Salgado has 89 career receptions for 577 yards and four scores. In 2024 he was Whitworth's first 1,000-yard rusher since Duke DeGaetano in 2016 and posted the second-highest single season total in school history with 1216 yards, behind only the 1293 yards Damian Putney put up in 1999. On November 8th Salgado became only the fourth player in school history to surpass 3,000 career rushing yards and needs 256 yards to break Whitworth's career rushing record of 3,338 held by Adam Anderson (2007-10).
Defensive Stopper: Sophomore Drew Cody is first in the Northwest Conference in total tackles (86) and second in tackles per game (9.6) in 2025. The Pirate inside linebacker is also first in the NWC, and ranks 27th in NCAA Div. III, in solo tackles per game (5.56).
"Foot"ball Excellence: Whitworth's kickers have been a bright spot in 2025. Iden Bone was named to the Fred Mitchell Award mid-season watch list as the top place kicker in all divisions below FBS. He leads the NWC in field goals made (14) and in scoring by a kicker (67 points, 7.4 points per game). Bone leads all of NCAA Div. III in field goals per game (1.56) and 11th in DIII in field goal percentage (0.824). His 47-yard field goal is the longest in the conference this season. He has tied Whitworth's school record for most field goals in one season.
Matthew Herzog is second in the NWC and 35th in all of NCAA Division III in punting average (39.8 yards per punt). He has six punts of over 50 yards.
Jake Gaffaney has averaged 60.3 yards per kickoff with 14 touchbacks, the most touchbacks of any player in the NWC.
Class of Distinction: Thirty-two Whitworth Pirates played their last game in the Pine Bowl against Pomona-Pitzer in the opening round of the NCAA Division III playoffs last November. That number marks the largest outgoing class in team history, which included nearly a dozen 5th-year players who used the extra eligibility awarded after the COVID-19 outbreak. Among that number were 10 starters on defense and nine on offense. Fourteen of those 19 departed starters earned All-NWC recognition. Quarterback Ryan Blair was the NWC Offensive Player of the Year. Linebacker Zach Brooks was the NWC Man of the Year, an award encompassing athletic ability, academics, leadership and community service.
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 2025, the Pirates are 84-24 since 2014, a winning percentage of .778.
Above Water: The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 435-422-18. Last season Whitworth moved above the .500 mark in all-time won-loss record for the first time since the Bucs were 32-31-2 before the start of the 1929 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. Whitworth won for the 400th time in school history on October 16, 2021 vs. PLU. 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 record in football was 248-337-18, 89 games under .500. Since that point Whitworth is 187-85.
Winning the Opener: Following the win over Gustavus Adolphus this season, Whitworth has won 10 of its 12 season-openers under head coach Rod Sandberg. The Pirates are 6-1 at home and 4-1 on the road. Whitworth's only season-opening losses under Sandberg came in 2016 and 2022.
Watch on FloCollege: Like the rest of the Northwest Conference, Whitworth's home athletic events will be steamed through FloCollege in 2025-26. Fans can sign up to watch Pirate sports on the FloCollege portal. Registration is $120 for an annual subscription or $20 per month. Those who register with a .edu email address get a significant discount.
Inland Northwest Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Bud Nameck, familiar in Spokane as the KXLY channel 4 sports director for over 20 years and the longtime host of the KXLY 920am Morning News, is in his 11th season as the voice of the Pirates in 2025. 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.
Listen to Road Games: Fans can tune in online to listen to Pirate ROAD games for free at WhitworthPirates.com. Bud Nameck will provide play by play when Whitworth is away from the Pine Bowl.
The Head Coach: Now in his 12th season, Rod Sandberg has entrenched himself in the Whitworth and NCAA record books as the Pirates' head football coach. Sandberg has guided the Pirates to an 84-24 record over his first 11 seasons, including four appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs (2015, 2018, 2023 and 2024). 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 .778 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 10 active coaches in all of Division III. He coached the Pirates to the fourth unbeaten regular season in school history (9-0) in 2018. In 2023 and 2024 he coached Whitworth to the first-ever back-to-back ten-win seasons in school history, as well as the first back-to-back NCAA playoff appearances. 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 Loggers: Puget Sound is 1-8 overall and 1-5 in the NWC following last Saturday's 77-14 loss to Linfield. The Loggers have one of the most explosive offenses in the conference, averaging 28.4 points and 412.7 yards per game. UPS has allowed 51.8 points and 513.0 yards per game. Head coach Jeff Thomas is in his 16th year at UPS and has posted a 41-103 record.
Senior QB Hayden Teeter has completed 59% of his passes for 3,243 yards (360.3 ypg) with 28 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. In terms of receptions, UPS has the top three receivers in the NWC, led by Joe Gallagher who has 89 catches for 934 yards and four touchdowns. Issac Tran has 70 receptions for 885 yards and nine touchdowns. Darius Bailey has 50 for 833 yards and an NWC-high 11 touchdowns. Sophomore LB Peyton Damasiewicz leads the defense with 75 tackles, including 6.0 TFLs for 32 yards.
Last Saturday in the Loggers' home finale Linfield jumped out to a 28-0 lead in the opening quarter and led 56-7 at halftime on the way to a 77-14 win over Puget Sound. The Wildcats outgained the Loggers 627-296. Teeter completed 31 of 55 passes for 321 yards with two touchdowns and one interception but was sacked four times for 28 yards in losses. Tran had 14 catches for 157 yards and one TD. Bailey caught the other touchdown pass.
Last Meeting: Whitworth scored the final three touchdowns of the game to break away from a tough challenge put up by the Loggers in a 42-24 victory in Tacoma. The Pirates led 15-0 in the second quarter before UPS rallied for leads of 16-15 and 24-21 in the third. Whitworth had three one-play scoring drives in the game.
The Pirates finished with 547 yards and averaged 9.9 yards per play. Nathan Owens had a breakout game catching balls out of the backfield. He finished with six catches for 133 yards and two touchdowns. The first was a 19-yard fade route in the endzone. The second was a short shuffle pass he turned into a 73-yard score in the third quarter. Luis Salgado rushed for 168 yards on only 15 carries (11.2 ypc) and scored a touchdown. The Pirate offensive line did not allow a sack.
Because the offense scored so quickly, so often, the Whitworth defense was on the field for over 39 minutes. The Loggers gained over 500 yards but needed 99 plays to do it (5.2 yards per play). Joshua Lawson came up with a career-high 13 tackles, including 11 solo stops, and broke up three passes.
The Series: Puget Sound is Whitworth's oldest and longest running football rival. Whitworth's first official collegiate game was a 6-0 victory over the College of Puget Sound in 1904 (when Whitworth was located near Tacoma). The teams have played each other 77 times and the Pirates hold a 50-26-1 edge in the series with the Loggers. The biggest Pirate win in the series was 70-11 in 2012. The biggest Logger win (41-0) came in 1967. Puget Sound ended a 23-game losing streak to Whitworth in 2019 with a 34-23 victory at Baker Stadium.
Coming up next: Whitworth will play in the NCAA Division III playoffs. The Pirates will find out when and where they play their first game when the field is announced on Sunday at 2:00 pm (PST).
