In a sense, the playoffs begin now. Whitworth College will travel to Willamette University for a key Northwest Conference football game on Saturday that will not only have great impact on the final Northwest Conference standings but will also weigh heavily in determining a potential spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs. Both the Pirates and Bearcats have put themselves in position to "control their own destiny" by winning their final two games.

Whitworth is also ranked for the first time this season, making its debut at #25 in the D3football.com poll. The AFCA Coaches' poll will be released on Tuesday morning.

Whitworth is coming off of a 69-12 win over Lewis & Clark. The Pirates posted the most points a Whitworth team has scored since a 70-30 win over Whitman in 1976. Willamette won a key game at PLU 26-21 by scoring twice in the final four minutes.

The Pirates: Whitworth scored touchdowns on its first ten possessions and ran away to a 69-12 win over the Pioneers. It was the largest margin of victory in the series and matched the greatest number of points ever scored against Lewis & Clark. Whitworth scored more points than it had since beating Whitman 70-30 in 1976.

Joel Clark (So., QB, Spokane, Wash. - Mt. Spokane HS) played only a quarter and a half and completed 8 of 8 passes for 115 yards and two touchdowns. Zach Henningsen (RS So., QB, Hillsboro, Ore. - Glencoe HS) came in and threw three passes for 149 yards and three touchdowns.

Jared Thomas (RS So., WR, Newberg, Ore. - Newberg HS) caught six of the passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for another score. David Woods (Sr., TE, Quincy, Wash. - Quincy HS) followed up his first career reception last week with his first career touchdown reception this week, a 12-yard effort. Chris Ahsing (RS Fr., RB, Ewa Beach, Hawaii - Campbell HS) carried 19 times for 103 yards and two touchdowns. Drew Griggs (RS Fr., RB, Colbert, Wash. - Mt. Spokane HS) and Nick Koller (RS Fr., WR, La Crosse, Wash. - La Crosse HS) also ran for the first touchdowns of their careers.

The Pirate defense held Lewis & Clark to one offensive touchdown (the Pioneers scored their first TD on a kick off return in the first quarter). L&C gained 181 of its 260 yards after halftime, when Whitworth's defense was made up of second and third string players. Shawn Agustin (Fr., DB, Pearl City, Hawaii - Iolani HS) intercepted two passes and finished with four tackles. Justin Rundle (RS, Fr., DL, Spokane, Wash. - Mt. Spokane HS) and Austin Richard (RS Jr., DL, Seattle, Wash. - Blanchet HS) each had a sack and one other tackle for loss. Daniel Jones (RS Jr., LB, Coos Bay, Ore. - Marshfield HS) caused and forced a fumble.

Click here for the press release of Saturday's win over L&C.

Red Zone Effectiveness: Whitworth continued its effectiveness in the red zone on Saturday, scoring all seven times they were inside the L&C 20 yard line. The Pirates have scored 37 of 41 times they have been in opponents' red zones this season. Whitworth has actually only been stopped twice. Two of the times they have failed to score have been kneel downs at the end of the La Verne and Eastern Oregon games.

Winning the Battle: The turnover battle often decides the outcome of games and Whitworth has been exceptional in turnover ratio this season. The Pirates lead the NWC with a +14 turnover margin (20 takeaways and six turnovers) and a +2.0 turnover ratio per game.

NWC Poll: Whitworth finished fourth in the NWC preseason coaches poll with 18 points. Defending champion Linfield finished first with all six first place votes. Link to NWC Football Coaches Poll.

National Polls: With a 6-1 start, the Pirates have reached 25th in the D3football.com poll this week, after spending the first part of the season getting listed with "others receiving votes". The poll can be found on the D3football.com website here:
http://www.d3football.com/top25.php?year=2004&week=9

The Opponents: Willamette comes into Saturday's game having won five games in a row since suffering a 20-13 loss at Eastern Oregon on September 18th. The Bearcats are outscoring opponents by an average of 28-17 and are once again running their fly option offense very effectively. Willamette is averaging 266 yards rushing per game and 380 yards overall. The Bearcats run by committee. Six different players have netted at least 200 yards rushing this season, led by junior QB Cameron Walter who has run for 388 yards and completed 51% of his passes for 833 yards. He has thrown five touchdown passes and run for six more. Ryan Hernandez has averaged 11.1 yards per carry from his flanker, or fly, position. Willamette's linebackers are outstanding. Logan Lord is the senior leader of the group and has been an All-NWC selection for two years. Linebacker Megdy Khoury and defensive lineman Blake Cam lead the team in tackles for loss with 11 apiece.

In its most recent game with PLU the Bearcats scored twice in the final 3:29 to pull out a 26-21 win. Trailing 21-13, Walton ran four yards for a score that pulled Willamette to within 21-19 before the two-point run failed. After quickly forcing a punt and getting the ball back, Walton completed two big third down passes on an 81-yard drive for the winning score, which came on a two-yard run by Quentin Brock with 53 seconds to play. Walton was 10 for 23 for 185 yards with a touchdown and an interception. Hernandez scored on a 49-yard run in the second quarter.

The Series: Willamette holds a 26-15 edge in the all time series, though the Pirates had won three in a row until last season. The first meeting was 1908 when Whitworth won 18-0. The biggest Pirate win in the series was 46-0 in 1983. The biggest Bearcat victory was 67-0 in 1912. Whitworth's last win in the series was a 44-31 overtime thriller at the Pine Bowl in 2002.

Last Season: Willamette held Whitworth to 199 yards of total offense in a 24-7 Bearcat victory in Salem. Three different Pirate quarterbacks combined to complete 15 of 29 passes for 164 yards. Willamette's TK Matthews ran 75 yards for a touchdown on the second play of the game, setting the tone for the afternoon.

On the Road to California: The Pirates have now played 14 games in California in its football history with a record of 6-8. Since 1998 Whitworth is 5-4 in games played in the Golden State, winning the last five in a row. Including this season's wins at Redlands, La Verne and Menlo, Whitworth also has 2001's season-opening 21-10 win at Chapman and 2002's 30-7 win at Menlo. The only other win in California was a 10-0 victory over Humboldt State in 1961.

Coach Tully's Quotes:

On the L&C game: "I was very impressed with our team's performance. They played to a high level. We focused last week on what we could do better, and I saw evidence of that. I was really pleased for the guys who were able to get into the game and see significant time and for them to show as well as they did."

On Willamette: "They were one of the preseason favorites and they have played to that level. They are very well coached and have outstanding players. They are definitely a playoff caliber team."

The Coaches: John Tully is in his tenth season as head coach of the Pirates. He has a 44-48 record at Whitworth. However, he has led the Pirates to a 40-25 record over the past seven years and was named the 2001 NWC Coach of the Year. Tully is the second winningest coach in school history, trailing only Sam Adams (47-17-1 from 1958-64). Overall he is 75-70-1 in his 14th season as a head coach.

Tully, who graduated from Azusa Pacific in 1975, previously was the head coach at Eureka (Ill.) College, where he had a record of 31-22-1 while building the Red Devils into a strong midwest program.

Mark Speckman is 40-28 in his seventh year leading the Willamette football team after serving three seasons as the offensive coordinator under previous head coach Dan Hawkins. Prior to that he was a high school head coach for 14 seasons in California.

2004 Statistics

2004 Roster

Other Division III Football Links:

Northwest Conference On-line

D3football.com

American Football Coaches Association

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