SPOKANE, Wash. -- Whitworth's dominating first half was enough hold off a late Pacific Lutheran rally as the Pirates defeated the visiting Lutes 28-21 in a Northwest Conference football game at the Whitworth Pine Bowl.

Whitworth (4-1 overall, 2-0 NWC) took a 28-0 lead into half time, but saw PLU (4-1, 1-1) score two touchdowns in the final 2:15 to pull within a single score.

Anderson ran for 170 yards and a touchdown

Adam Anderson (So., RB, Elk, Wash. - Univ. of Idaho) ran for 170 yards on 27 carries to lead a Pirate ground attack that controlled possession for most of the game. Whitworth finished with 223 yards rushing against what had been the league's best running defense coming into the game, and finished with a time of possession advantage of 38:03 - 21:57.

Anderson set up the first Pirate touchdown when he broke around the right end on the second play of the game for a 61 yard carry to the PLU 13 yard line. A personal foul penalty moved the ball to the Lute seven yard line and three plays later Anderson carried in from the two to give Whitworth a lead after the first possession of the game. All 72 yards on the drive came on the ground.

On PLU's first possession, quarterback Brett Gordon completed a long pass to Ryan Alwert to the Whitworth 20 yard line, but Alwert was stripped of the ball by Whitworth safety Phil Entel (Sr., Clarkston, Wash. - Univ. of Idaho) and Ryan Marshall (Sr., CB, Salem, Ore. - Sprague) recovered for the Pirates. Whitworth then drove 80 yards in 15 plays, using 8:48 off of the clock, to go ahead 14-0 on Milton Nelson's (So., RB, Spokane, Wash. - EWU) nine yard run.

After an exchange of punts, Marshall intercepted his fourth pass of the season at the PLU 38 yard line to set up Whitworth's next score. Kory Kemp (Jr., QB, Redmond, Wash. - Eastlake) completed a play action pass to tight end Drew Griggs (Sr., Spokane, Wash. - Mead) from three yards with 8:01 left in the half for a 21-0 Whitworth lead.

Interceptions by Marshall (left) and Tully set up second quarter touchdowns for the Bucs

Late in the first half Tully intercepted Gordon at the PLU 31 yard line and Whitworth used most of the last 2:58 to score once more. On fourth and two at the Lutes' 26 yard line, another play action pass to Griggs was good over the middle for a score to give Whitworth a four touchdown lead heading into intermission.

The halftime stats show Whitworth with a 217-88 edge in total yards, an 11-2 advantage in first downs and a lead of 22:45 - 7:15 in time of possession.

Greg Ford set the Lutes up at the own 40 yard line with his kick off return to open the second half and PLU drove 60 yards in 12 plays for its first touchdown. Gordon carried in from one yard on third down completing the drive that used 6:10.

Whitworth preferred to stay on the ground and use clock in the second half, playing a ball possession and field position battle that worked for most of the rest of the third and much of the fourth quarter. PLU punted on its next two possessions before taking over on its own three yard line with 5:25 to go in the game. The Lutes then drove 97 yards in 17 plays to score on a 10 yard pass from Gordon to Craig Chiado with 2:14 to play, pulling PLU within 28-14.

A roughing the passer penalty on the touchdown pass was assessed on the kick off and PLU was able to attempt an onsides kick from the 45 yard line. The Lutes recovered at Whitworth's 39 and on the next play PLU pulled the hook and ladder with Gordon passing to Chiado at the Whitworth 25 and Chiado lateralled the ball to Ford who carried the final 25 yards for a score to pull the Lutes within 28-21 with 2:04 to play.

That's when it got crazy. PLU attempted another onsides kick and after a scrum an official initially signaled the ball belonged to the Lutes. But after a meeting the officials ruled the ball belonged to the Pirates, but gave Whitworth a 15 yard personal foul penalty for piling on. Kemp downed the ball three times, and on fourth down at his own 27 yard line with five seconds left, Kemp ran back far enough to down the ball again after time had expired.

The final stats looked very different than the halftime box score. The total yardage was 301 - 301 and first downs were 15-15. PLU threw for 247 yards and ran for 54, while Whitworth ran for 223 and threw for 78. While both teams had three sacks for 20 yards, Whitworth won the battle of turnovers. The teams came into the game ranked first and second in the NWC in turnover margin, but the Pirates gained three turnovers and didn't give up any, which was a key to the 28-0 halftime advantage.

In addition to Anderson's rushing totals, Chris Ahsing (Sr., RB, Ewa Beach, Hawaii - Campbell) ran for 59 yards. Kemp was 6 of 9 for 78 yards with the two touchdowns and no interceptions. Steve Silva (Sr., WR, Goleta, Calif. - Coll. of the Canyons) had four of the catches for 52 yards and Griggs had the other two for the two scores.

Gordon completed 19 of 35 passes for 247 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Chiado caught eight of the passes for 67 yards and one score and Chase Reed had five catches for 53 yards. Reed led the Lutes on the ground with seven carries for 38 yards.

PLU's Robert Thompson had 12 tackles, including a seven yard sack, to lead the PLU defense. Chad Blau was in on ten stops and Andy Eisentrout, the NWC's leader in sacks, added another to his total for six yards.

Greg Caster (Sr., LB, Sherwood, Ore. - Sherwood) and Jermane Easterlin (Jr., DE, Tacoma, Wash. - Bellarmine Prep) had six tackles each. Marc Grow (Sr., LB, Warden, Wash. - Warden) had five tackles, including a four yard sack, while Layton Brown (Fr., LB, Kennewick, Wash. - Kennewick) had an eight yard sack.

Whitworth, which wrapped up a three game home stretch, will now hit the road for four of the final five games of the season beginning with a NWC contest at Lewis & Clark next Saturday. PLU will try to rebound from its first loss of the season next week when the Lutes host NWC-member Menlo.