SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth will try to bounce back from a loss when the Pirates host the University of Redlands (Calif.) on Saturday in the Pine Bowl. The game will kick off at noon and be streamed online by FloSports.
Whitworth (1-1) is coming off a 16-10 loss at Eastern Oregon last Saturday. The Redlands Bulldogs (1-0) are coming off a bye week after defeating George Fox 10-7 in their season opener on September 6th.
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.
Military Appreciation Day: Saturday is Military Appreciation Day at Whitworth football. The game will feature a skydiving demonstration and flyover by a plane from Fairchild Air Force Base. 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 struggled to get on track offensively in last Saturday's 16-10 loss at Eastern Oregon. The Mountaineers ended a three-game losing streak to the Pirates that began with the recurrence of the rivalry series in 2022.
Whitworth's defense gave up only one touchdown drive of 34 yards on EOU's first series of the game and the Mountaineers finished with only 252 yards of offense. Sophomore linebacker Drew Cody had 13 tackles (8 solo), including one for loss. Senior safety Trey Rose added nine stops. Lane Watkins had Whitworth's only sack of the game among his five tackles. Whitworth was unable to come away with a turnover against EOU.
The Mountaineers held the Pirates to 174 yards of total offense. The tone was set on Whitworth's first possession when the Bucs were held on fourth and one at their own 34-yard line. Logan Lacio completed 25 of 34 passes for 160 yards. He was sacked three times for 31 yards in losses. Whitworth finished the game with 14 net rushing yards on 18 carries. Deacon Dietz caught seven passes for 77 yards, both career-highs.
Iden Bone made a 47-yard field goal in the first half and missed a 35-yard effort in the fourth quarter. His 47-yarder established a new career-long. Matthew Herzog punted four times for an average of 42.5 yards. Whitworth's only turnover of the game came with just under two minutes left in the game on a fumbled punt inside the ten yard line, allowing EOU to down the ball and run out the clock.
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's game between Redlands and Whitworth at the Pine Bowl, Willamette will visit La Verne, Chapman plays at Linfield, Lewis & Clark battles Pomona-Pitzer, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps goes to George Fox and Cal Lutheran is at Puget Sound. With Whitter resuming its football program and Azusa Pacific joining the SCIAC, both in 2026, the leagues will each return to eight members. Until then, PLU will host Trinity (Texas) and Pacific (Ore.) hosts Wis.-Stevens Point this week. Last season the NWC went 5-1 against the SCIAC on the crossover weekend, including Whitworth's 35-28 win over Chapman.
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 Mason Podoll was the special forces captain last Saturday and different players will be selected for the special forces captain on a week-by-week basis.
Running Man: Luis Salgado is a two-time first team All-Northwest Conference honoree. He has gained 2,277 yards in his career with a 6.1 yards per carry average and has run for 23 touchdowns. Also a threat catching the ball out of the backfield, Salgado has 76 career receptions for 487 yards and four scores. In 2024 he was Whitworth's first 1,000-yard rusher since Duke DeGaetano ran for 1,001 yards 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.
In the Polls: The Pirates fell to "others receiving votes" in the current (Sept. 14) D3football.com top-25 poll. The Pirates are also still listed among "others receiving votes" in the AFCA Division III Coaches poll. Whitworth was picked second in the Northwest Conference preseason poll behind Linfield. The Wildcats received five first place votes while the Bucs got two and PLU one.
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 429-421-18. 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 181-84.
11th Heaven: With the win over Puget Sound on October 19th last fall, Whitworth clinched its 11th 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: 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.
Looking Back at 2024: Whitworth opened the season with a 40-7 win at Gustavus Adolphus, leading to a 3-0 record against non-conference opponents. The Pirates finished 6-1 against the Northwest Conference, including a 31-0 win at George Fox and a 39-32 win at Pacific in which Luis Salgado broke the NWC record for rushing yards in a single game (365). The only loss was 34-7 to Linfield in the season finale. At 9-1, Whitworth was invited to the NCAA Division III playoffs and defeated Pomona-Pitzer 21-13 in the first round to claim a second straight 10-win season for the first time in school history. The Pirates were defeated in the second round by eventual champion North Central (Ill.).
Watch on FlowCollege: 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 Bulldogs: Redlands (1-0) finished 3-7 in 2024, including a 3-5 SCIAC mark. Last year Redlands averaged 248 yards of offense and 12.6 points per game while allowing 303 yards and 21.9 points per contest. The Bulldogs got off to a promising start in 2025 with a 10-7 win over visiting George Fox in their season opener on September 6th.
Head coach Jim Good is in his 5th season guiding Redlands and his 16th year on staff after serving a long stint as Associate Head Coach. He is 20-20 through his first four years.
Sophomore running back Taylor Bowie had 134 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries in his first career start, leading the Bulldogs to 192 yards on the ground against GFU. Junior QB Luke Coleman also started for the first time and completed 11 of 22 passes for 100 yards. Senior linebacker Jaeden Thorn led the defense with eight solo tackles. Junior defensive back Caleb Gibbs had two solo tackles and two interceptions that he returned for a total of 69 yards. The Bulldogs limited the Bruins to 273 yards of total offense and came away with three interceptions in the game.
Last Meeting: The Pirates and Bulldogs have not played each other since 2011. Redlands won that game 30-20 in the Pine Bowl. Two key fumbles may have been the difference – one on a Whitworth kickoff return that allowed Redlands to take a 21-7 lead right before halftime. The other came with the Pirates behind 24-20 and driving into UR territory in the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs, ranked 17th in the D3football.com poll at the time of the game, outgained the Pirates 428-368.
The Series: Redlands leads the series 6-3 and has won five straight games, the last of which occurred in 2011. The Bulldogs have won three of four games at Whitworth and lead 3-2 at Ted Runner Stadium in Redlands, California. Redlands won 20-7 at home in the first-ever meeting in 2000. The 2001 game was cancelled after the events of Sept. 11th. Whitworth won three in a row from 2004 through 2006. The Pirates' largest margin of victory was 28-3 in 2006. Redlands' largest win was 38-7 in 2008.
Coming up next: Whitworth will get a week off on Sept. 27 before opening Northwest Conference play on the road at Pacific (Ore.) on October 4th.
