SPOKANE, Wash. –Fresh off clinching a 13th-straight winning season, Whitworth will finish out the 2026 football schedule with a road game at the University of Puget Sound on Saturday at noon. The game will be video streamed live on FloCollege and can be heard for free at WhitworthPirates.com.
Whitworth (5-3 overall, 4-2 NWC) won 24-14 in the home finale last Saturday to send the Pirate seniors off on a positive note. Puget Sound (2-6, 2-4 NWC) lost 77-3 at 20th-ranked Linfield.
The Pirates: Whitworth held off Willamette 24-14 in the home finale on Saturday in the Pine Bowl. The Pirates outgained the Bearcats 375-146 and had an 18-8 advantage in first downs yet needed a field goal with just over two minutes to play in the game to secure the win.
The defense provided the difference. After allowing an 88-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, the defense held Willamette to only 42 yards of offense the rest of the game. That paid off when the Bearcats gained possession on Whitworth's side of the field twice in the fourth quarter after a pair of Pirate fumbles. Drew Cody had 11 tackles, including a four-yard TFL. Hayden Throneberry added seven tackles and intercepted Willamette's last pass of the game. Dylan McCain and Lucas Reynolds each had a seven-yard sack.
Nathan Owens provided the play of the game in his final appearance at the Pine Bowl. The senior broke away for a 75-yard touchdown run, losing a shoe near midfield, yet still outracing the defense to the endzone. Logan Lacio completed 21 of 28 passes for 199 yards. Keagan Lime caught seven of those throws for 74 yards, while Nate Peterson had four receptions for 47 yards. Grant Spillman ran for a five-yard touchdown and senior QB Colin Fulton scored Whitworth's first TD of the game on his first career carry.
Iden Bone kicked the game-clinching 29-yard field goal with 2:09 to play in the fourth quarter. He also made all three of his extra points. Jake Gaffaney averaged nearly 64 yards on five kickoffs with two touchbacks, while Matthew Herzog averaged 34.8 yards per punt. Throneberry returned three punts for 29 total yards.
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 PK Iden Bone.
Defensive Stopper: Junior LB Drew Cody continues to dominate on defense like he did in 2025. He leads the NWC in tackles per game (10.4 – 14th in Division III) and in total tackles (83). He is second in the conference in solo tackles per game (5.25). Cody has four takeaways (two fumble recoveries, two interceptions) this season.
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 41 in 57 attempts. Over the last two seasons he has made 28 of 32, with a career-long of 55 yards. So far in 2026 he is first among NWC kickers in points per game (7.6). He is 12 of 13 on field goal attempts and has made all 25 of his PATs. Bone has made 76 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.
Lucky 13: With the win over Willamette, Whitworth clinched its 13th 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.
Road Warriors: Whitworth heads into Saturday's game at Puget Sound on a 15-game road winning streak against NWC opponents that dates to Oct. 15, 2022. That was when the Pirates were defeated 28-7 at Pacific Lutheran. Whitworth has won twice on the road against conference foes this year – at George Fox and at PLU.
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 51-15 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 441-426-18. 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 192-89.
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 Loggers: Puget Sound comes into the season finale 2-6 overall and 2-4 in the NWC following a loss at Linfield last Saturday. Puget Sound averages 332 yards and 20.1 points per game while the Loggers give up 436.3 yards and 43.2 points per contest.
Head coach Jeff Thomas is in his 17th year at UPS and has posted a 43-110 record.
Sophomore QB Brady Beck has completed 56.8% of his passes for 1889 yards with 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He has two strong targets in freshman WR Kasey Williams (38 receptions, 553 yards, five TDs) and junior WR Drake Granberry (38 receptions, 523 yards, three TDs). Junior LB Peyton Damasiewicz leads the team with 48 tackles, including 4.5 TFLs, with a fumble recovery. Junior DB Dylan Ott has three interceptions and three passes defended along with 26 tackles.
Last week Puget Sound ran into a hungry Linfield team that had a chance to clinch the NWC title and the league's automatic berth to the NCAA playoffs. The Wildcats took advantage with a 77-3 win over the Loggers. Linfield exploded for four touchdowns in the first quarter and five more in the second on the way to a 63-0 lead at halftime. Puget Sound finished with 193 yards of offense and threw four interceptions. Brady Beck completed 10 of 28 passes for 102 yards with three of the interceptions. Kasey Williams caught five passes for 79 yards.
Last Meeting: Whitworth clinched the outright Northwest Conference football championship with a 59-31 win over Puget Sound in the Pine Bowl. The Pirates won by four touchdowns against the Loggers, despite the fact the UPS had significant advantages in total offense (646-489), first downs (29-20) and time of possession (32:14 – 27:46).
Logan Lacio had his most efficient game of the season, completing 20 of 24 passes for 351 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. He threw a pair of touchdowns to Drake Matthies, including a 74-yard score in the fourth quarter. Louis Salgado ran for 95 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. Kurt Solano had 49 yards on seven carries.
Omari Williams had a career-high 14 tackles, including 13 solo stops, to lead the defense. He added four pass breakups and was named the NWC's Defensive Player of the Week. Ryen Borchers also had a career-best 11 tackles, while Drew Cody finished with ten tackles. Cody also had an 87-yard return for the game's final touchdown after Mason Toomalatai forced a fumble on a sack.
Iden Bone made his only field goal attempt, from 22 yards, but it officially tied him with Rehn Reiley for the Whitworth record for field goals in a season with 15. He also made all eight of his extra points and was named the NWC's Special Teams Player of the Week.
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 in Tacoma). The teams have played each other 78 times and the Pirates hold a 51-26-1 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 head to the off-season preparing for the 2027 campaign.
