Pirates’ smooth sailing

The offense, defense and special teams contributed. The starters played well. The backups played well. Even a starter who wasn’t expected to play played well.

It was a rather smooth Saturday for the Whitworth Pirates, who scored on their first two possessions and went on to rout Menlo College 49-0 in the Northwest Conference football opener for both teams.

The Pirates (3-1, 1-0 NWC) got busy early in front of 1,950 at the Pine Bowl. They won the coin flip, elected to receive and needed just five plays to reach the end zone on the first of two Adam Anderson touchdown runs. After forcing a Menlo punt, Whitworth promptly marched 55 yards in 12 plays, capped by Chris Ahsing’s 5-yard scoring run and it was 14-0.

Whitworth’s defense pitched its second shutout of the season. The unit intercepted four passes, including two returned for touchdowns in the second quarter – one by Ryan Marshall and one by Marc Grow, who was expected to sit out because of a groin injury.

“That was my understanding, too,” said Marshall, who returned his pick 26 yards to put the Pirates up 21-0. “This morning at walk-through he showed up and he was ready to go. He had the interception and the first thing Coach said on the sideline was, ‘Oh, I guess you are ready to play.’ “

Grow woke up Saturday morning feeling much better than he did during the week.

“I’m a little sore now,” he said after making six tackles, two for losses, forcing a fumble and returning an interception 35 yards for a touchdown. “It’s slowly getting better. Hopefully, I’ll keep progressing and be 100 percent for PLU (Pacific Lutheran) next Saturday.”

Whitworth forced five turnovers – that’s 15 takeaways in four games – and limited the Oaks (0-5, 0-1) to 157 yards. Menlo freshmen Tony Rehn and Angel Molina have combined to throw 12 interceptions this season. The Oaks’ best opportunity to score ended with a missed field goal from 24 yards early in the second quarter.

“John’s done a nice job with the program up here,” said Menlo coach Mark Kaanapu, referring to Pirates counterpart John Tully. “He’s got an outstanding staff and they put together a good game plan and took advantage of our inexperience and youth.”

Junior quarterback Kory Kemp was 5 of 5 for 53 yards on Whitworth’s first two scoring drives. The offense cooled off for the remainder of the half, but added another touchdown midway through the third on Anderson’s 51-yard dash.

“There was a good hole to run,” said Anderson, who rushed for 90 yards on nine carries. “Everybody blocked it well.”

No. 2 quarterback Jon Luke handled the next three possessions, two of which resulted in touchdowns. Luke’s 22-yard pass to Justin Wimberly concluded the scoring early in the fourth quarter.

“After going up 28-0, I thought all the guys that got in the second half, you want to be crisp and I thought they were,” Tully said.

Not to be left out, freshman punter Zack Clow helped tilt field position in the Pirates’ favor by averaging 38.1 yards on seven punts.Whitworth entertains PLU (4-0, 1-0), a 37-8 winner ov