Whitworth Desires A Victory To Build On

With a win on Saturday, the Whitworth Pirates will finish the season undefeated and will head into the NCAA Division III football playoffs with the No. 1 ranking in the country.

Pirates head coach John Tully, this year’s coach of the year, said his team is ready for this week’s showdown between it and No. 2-ranked Western Washington at the Whitworth Pine Bowl… .

Wouldn’t that be cool?

But for now, as it has been for many years, Whitworth’s final game of the season will serve as a building block for next year. Who knows, maybe Saturday’s game could serve as a catalyst for a run at next year’ playoffs. The last and only time the Pirates made the playoffs was in 1960.

Whitworth (0-4 Mt. Hood, 1-7 overall) plays host to Linfield (2-2, 5-3) Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Pine Bowl. The Pirates are coming off a 48-35 loss at Puget Sound last Saturday, when Linfield beat Lewis and Clark 23-9.

Linfield’s Wildcats clinched their 40th consecutive winning season, a streak that is the longest of all 670 college football programs. It is only two years shy of the all-time record shared by Harvard and Notre Dame.

Defensively, Whitworth must find a way to contain fullback Joey Rector, who led Linfield last week with 265 all-purpose yards while scoring two touchdowns.

Linfield and Whitworth last met in 1990, when the Wildcats beat the Pirates 45-35 as quarterback Todd Crist threw for 313 yards and two touchdowns. Linfield leads the series 15-3-2.

, DataTimes