SPOKANE, Wash. -- Whitworth linebacker Casey Clifton has been named the Northwest Conference's Defensive Player of the Week, and also was selected to the D3football.com Team of the Week for the games of November 4th.

Clifton led Whitworth to a 17-13 win at Linfield, the Pirates' first win over the Wildcats since 1975 and the first ever win in McMinnville for the Bucs. A junior from Spokane's University High School, Clifton led all players with 17 tackles, including one for loss. But more importantly, in the first quarter he stripped a Linfield running back of the ball and returned it 38 yards for the Pirates' first touchdown. Then with Linfield driving in the fourth quarter, his hit on another Wildcat running back forced a fumble inside the Whitworth five yard line that teammate Nick Portrey recovered and returned out to the Pirates' 37 yard line.

Clifton leads Whitworth and ranks third in the NWC in total tackles this season with 79 (8.8 per game). He also leads the team with 8 tackles for losses of 49 yards. He has been the Pirates' leading tackler in seven of the nine games this season.

The Pirates (9-0, ranked 9th in the D3football.com poll and 8th in the AFCA Coaches Top 25) host Puget Sound (7-2) on Saturday at 12:30 pm in the Pine Bowl with a chance to become the first Whitworth team in history to win ten games in one season.