Joshua Leads Bucs Whitworth Faces Mighty Rival
Maybe it’s fitting that Whitworth, a small Christian College, is led by a young man named Joshua as its football team prepares to do battle with a nationally-ranked rival.
Freshman Josh Parbon will be at the helm of the Pirates offense for at least the next three weeks because senior starter J.J. Green is battling mononucleosis.
Whitworth (1-1) travels to Bellingham to take on Western Washington (2-0) Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Western, ranked a school-best No. 4 in the NAIA Division II poll for the second straight week, beat Puget Sound 52-7 at UPS last week.
Whitworth’s Pirates will have an additional disadvantage offensively because starting tailback Brion Williams will miss the game because of a family emergency.
Even if it weren’t for the emergency, Williams was questionable because he injured his right knee in Whitworth’s 27-10 loss to Central Washington last Saturday.
“These things are a part of the game. We’ll just make the necessary adjustments and respond accordingly,” said Whitworth coach John Tully after the loss.
Green didn’t suit up, so Tully gave the starting nod to Parbon.
Williams injured his knee just before the end of the first quarter and never returned. Freshman tailback Caleb Areceneaux from Bonners Ferry, Idaho, will replace him in the lineup.
As far as Parbon is concerned, when asked what he thought about taking on the fourth-ranked team in the country, well, he responded like a freshman.
“It should be fun. They’ve got a lot of talented players. If we play our game and don’t turn the ball over, I think we can be competitive. If we hadn’t turned the ball over against Central when we did, we could have won that game.”
The Pirates clung to a 10-7 lead before their offense stalled in the second half.
And even though they couldn’t pick up a first down after intermission, that had nothing to do with the fact that Parbon was nervous.
“I found out that I’d be replacing J.J. for sure on Friday. I had some butterflies, but at quarterback, you’ve got to have confidence that you’re going to do a good job,” he said. “If I don’t have confidence in myself, there’s no reason for the team to.”
Against Western, not only must the offense have confidence, the defense must have some as well.
Against Puget Sound, Western racked up 250 total yards and 28 points in the first quarter alone.
The Vikings finished with 524 yards of total offense (294 passing, 230 rushing) and held UPS to 185 yards while registering four interceptions.
Western running back Jon Brunagh ran for 129 yards, 91 of them in the opening period, on 10 carries and scored three touchdowns.
Meanwhile, WWU quarterbacks were completing 10 of 18 passes for 182 yards.
, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in Spokane edition.