Whits open 100th season tonight

Whitworth College opens its 100th season of intercollegiate football tonight against the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif.

Kickoff is set for 7:05 in the Bulldogs’ 6,750-seat Ted Runner Stadium, with both NCAA Division III teams expecting big seasons.

Whitworth, which is led by the preseason All-America trio of senior quarterback Joel Clark, senior tight end Michael Allan and junior cornerback Ryan Marshall, is coming off a 5-3 season and just missed landing a spot in the preseason D3football.com Top 25 poll, in which they received a total of 86 points, eight fewer than No. 25 Thiel.

The Pirates, who finished 3-2 in the Northwest Conference last fall, opened their 2005 season with a 35-21 win over Redlands in the Pine Bowl. Clark threw for 210 yards and two touchdown in that win, while also rushing for a team-high 103 yards and two more scores.

Redlands, which finished 5-4 overall and 4-2 in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last year, features a ball-control offense that is triggered by senior quarterback Chris Sara, who threw for 1,325 yards and nine touchdowns last fall after taking over as the Bulldogs’ starter at midseason.

Redlands is the first of four non-conference foes Whitworth will play to open the 2006 season.

“Our non-conference games are all going to be very, very challenging,” Bucs coach John Tully said. “But our guys are excited about having the opportunity to play good teams from other regions of the country.”