SPOKANE, Wash. –Whitworth hopes the bumps, scares and tricks are in the past when the Pirates play a Halloween Day game at Pacific Lutheran University this Saturday. This week's contest will kick off at noon, instead of 1:00 pm, and will be streamed live on FloCollege. Fans can also listen to an audio broadcast for free at WhitworthPirates.com.
Whitworth (3-3 overall, 2-2 NWC) lost 43-41 in a triple-overtime thriller to Lewis & Clark last weekend, marking the Bucs' first two-game losing skid in four seasons. PLU (3-4, 2-2) was beaten 41-0 at Linfield.
Late Change: The kickoff for Saturday's game has moved one hour forward at the request of the Puyallup School District, which owns Sparks Stadium. Instead of playing at 1:00 pm, the game will begin at noon to allow for a high school game that night.
The Pirates: Whitworth hosted Lewis & Clark last Saturday in the Pine Bowl. The Bucs fell behind 7-0, took a 28-7 lead, fell behind 35-28, scored in the final seconds to force overtime, then lost 43-41 in the third OT possession. The River Otters ended a 13-game losing skid to the Pirates and remained tied for first place in the league standings with Linfield.
Logan Lacio completed 40 of 51 passes for 475 yards with five touchdowns and one interception. Keagan Lime caught nine of the passes for 151 yards and a touchdown. The catches and yardage were career-highs for Lime. Tyson Hoke had seven catches for 115 yards and two touchdowns, including a 69-yard bomb in the second quarter. Deacon Deitz caught eight passes for 91 yards and a score. Chris Gustafson caught his first career touchdown in the overtime period. Whitworth's running game was bottled up for the second straight week, limited to 23 net yards. Kurt Solano ran for 20 yards on nine carries.
The Pirate defense held the NWC's highest-scoring offense to zero points in the first half. L&C's only first half points came on an interception return for a touchdown early in the game that gave the visitors a 7-0 lead. The defense also stopped the River Otters on four of five fourth down conversion attempts. Two of those stops were by Drew Cody in the second quarter. Cody led the defense with 10 tackles, including 1.5 TFLs. Ryen Borchers and Collin Campbell had six tackles each. Hayden Throneberry broke up a pair of passes.
Matthew Herzog averaged 43.3 yards per punt, while Jake Gaffaney averaged 60 yards per kickoff with two touchbacks. Iden Bone did not attempt a field goal but made all five of his extra points.
Team Captains: The Pirate team captains in 2026 are QB Logan Lacio and center Caleb Cabrera from the offense and CB Omari Williams and LB Drew Cody from the defense. A special forces captain will be selected on a week-by-week basis. Last week's special forces captain was senior WR Deacon Dietz.
Defensive Stopper: Junior LB Drew Cody has picked up where he left off in 2025. He leads the NWC in tackles per game (9.7) and is second in total tackles (58). Cody has four takeaways (two fumble recoveries, two interceptions).
Last Fall Cody led the NWC in total tackles (106), tackles per game (9.6) and solo tackles per game (5.4). He also had 7.0 tackles for losses of 23 yards. He was named first team All-NWC.
A "Bone" to Pick: Whitworth place kicker Iden Bone is a D3football.com preseason All-American in 2026. For good reason. He is the Pirates' all-time leader in made field goals with 36 in 52 attempts. Over the last two seasons he has made 23 of 27, with a career-long of 55 yards. So far in 2026 he is second among NWC kickers in points per game (7.0). He is 7 of 8 on field goal attempts and has made all 19 of his PATs. Bone has made 69 consecutive extra points.
In 2025 he finished the season as the league's leading scorer in overall points (82) and points per game (7.5). He made 16 of 19 field goal attempts and all 34 of his extra points. Bone ranked second in NCAA Div. III in field goals per game and top ten in field goal percentage (.842). He set the school record for most field goals made in a season, breaking the previous record of 15 set in 2015. In 2023 he set the school record for made PATs in a season.
Home-Sweet-Home: Including the exhibition game date against the Utah Islanders, six of the ten games on the schedule are in the Whitworth Pine Bowl this season. It is the first time since 2021 and only the second time in the last decade the Bucs have had six home games in a regular season. The Pirates are 50-15 at home since Rod Sandberg became head coach in 2014.
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 2026, the Pirates are 92-27 since 2014, a winning percentage of .773.
Above Water: The Pirates' all-time record in football now stands at 439-426-18. In 2024 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 191-89.
Power of 12: With the win over PLU on November 1, 2025, 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.
Looking Back at 2025: Whitworth bounced back from a 1-2 record against non-conference opponents to run through Northwest Conference action 7-0. The conference title came during what might have been considered a rebuilding season when the team was only returning a pair of starters each on offense and defense from 2024. Whitworth fell to Chapman 18-16 in the NCAA playoffs when a two-point conversion attempt with no time left failed to tie the game.
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 13th 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 a 92-27 record over that span, including five appearances in the NCAA Division III playoffs (2015, 2018, 2023, 2024 and 2025). 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 .773 is the best among Whitworth coaches with at least five seasons and currently ranks among the top 15 active coaches in all of Division III. He coached the Pirates to the fourth unbeaten regular season in school history (9-0) in 2018 and then duplicated that accomplishment in 2023. In 2023 and 2024 Whitworth had the first-ever back-to-back ten-win seasons in school history, and the Pirates have made three straight 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 Lutes: Pacific Lutheran (3-4 overall, 2-2 NWC) brings one of the NWC's best defenses into Saturday's game against the Pirates. The Lutes allow only 275.7 yards per game, the second-lowest average in the conference, and give up 23.9 points per game. PLU is still finding its offensive footing, with averages of 277.1 yards and 15.1 points per contest.
Brant McAdams (37-41) is in his ninth season as head coach at PLU and led the team to its best season since 2014 in 2024 (7-3 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.
Pacific Lutheran has used four different players at quarterback this season. Senior Anthony Mahaffy has appeared in every game and has completed 51.8% of his passes for 702 yards with seven touchdowns and five interceptions. First-year Dallas So'oto made his first start of the season at Linfield. Sophomore WR Dayton Savea has caught 31 passes for 526 yards with four touchdowns. Senior LB Mason Taylor-Wells leads the defense with 53 total tackles and two fumble recoveries. Senior DL Cole Becker has 11 TFLs for 45 yards in losses, tied for second in the NWC. He's made 46 total tackles.
Last week PLU's defense kept the Lutes in the game at Linfield for the first half. PLU was only behind 10-0 at halftime before the Wildcats pulled away in the second half for a 41-0 victory. Taylor-Wells had seven tackles in the game, while Becker made five stops, including one for loss. So'oto completed 14 of 24 passes for 183 yards with no interceptions. Junior WR Connor Meade grabbed four passes for 67 yards. But the PLU rushing game was held to -2 yards.
Last Meeting: Whitworth relied on its defense to overcome Pacific Lutheran in a 10-6 home win last season in the Pine Bowl.
Lane Watkins was selected as the Northwest Conference Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week for his efforts leading the defense. He had six tackles, two of which were for losses of four yards. He intercepted a pass at Whitworth's three-yard line to prevent a PLU touchdown and blocked an extra point after the Lutes' only score. Omari Williams had the Pirates' other interception, also deep in Whitworth territory, in the third quarter. Hunter Letteer led the Bucs with eight tackles, while Drew Cody had seven stops.
The Whitworth offense was held to 280 yards, most of which came through the air. Logan Lacio completed 25 of 34 passes for 233 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. Tyson Hoke caught four passes for 41 yards and Dawson Tobeck caught his first touchdown pass of the season early in the third quarter. Luis Salgado was held to 44 yards on 15 carries.
In addition to the blocked extra point, Whitworth had some other big plays on special teams. Hayden Throneberry had a 31-yard punt return. Iden Bone kicked a 26-yard field goal in the third quarter but missed a 34-yard attempt in the fourth. Jake Gaffaney averaged the maximum of 65 yards per kickoff, two of which went for touchbacks.
The Series: No other opponent has more wins against Whitworth than PLU. The Lutes lead the all-time series 52-30. 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 has won 11 of the last 12. 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 host Willamette on November 7th in the final home game of the 2026 season.
