Willamette bears down

This one changed as quickly as the fickle fall weather.

With 11:30 left in the second quarter, the Whitworth Pirates led by 14 points, had outgained Willamette by 120 yards and owned a 13½-minute edge in time of possession.

The Bearcats then unleashed their diverse offense and figured out how to contain Pirates running back Adam Anderson to rally for an impressive 32-23 Northwest Conference football victory, spoiling Whitworth’s homecoming in front of 2,450 Saturday at the Pine Bowl.

No. 23 Willamette improved to 5-0 while snapping the Pirates’ 13-game NWC winning streak on a breezy afternoon that saw the sun, clouds and rain make several appearances.

“As I said coming in, I think this is one of their best teams in the last 6-7 years,” said Pirates coach John Tully, whose team dropped to 2-2, 0-1 in conference. “They’re playing well, but I thought our guys played well and gave great effort.”

True enough, but even that sometimes stung the Pirates. Willamette had pulled even at 17 and took possession at Whitworth’s 20 after intercepting an ill-advised pass by Mike Peck early in the fourth quarter. On third down at the Whitworth 1, Deon Horne was dropped for a 1-yard loss by defensive tackle Brandon Martin, who was flagged for inadvertently grabbing Horne’s face mask. Instead of facing fourth-and-2, Willamette had first-and-goal at the 1. Horne scored on the ensuing play to give the Bearcats their first lead.

The Pirates blocked the extra-point kick, but as they were celebrating, holder Grant Leslie alertly picked up the ball behind the line of scrimmage and ran it in for a two-point conversion.

A promising Whitworth possession ended near midfield and the Bearcats’ Jose Green provided an insurance touchdown with a 44-yard run with 1:26 remaining.

After a sluggish start, Willamette’s “Fly” offense generated 387 yards, including 132 rushing by Horne, 83 by Green and 53 by Merben Woo. The trio averaged 7.4 yards on 36 combined carries.

The Bearcats looked overmatched defending Anderson early. The junior fueled both of the Pirates’ first-half scoring drives. Behind six Anderson runs and a 27-yard dash by Milton Nelson, Whitworth moved to the Bearcats’ 24, where Peck fired a pass to Eric Entel for the first touchdown.

The Pirates’ next possession featured another steady diet of Anderson, who picked up 59 yards rushing and receiving on a 67-yard scoring drive. He accounted for the final 7 yards with a nice cutback move after catching a swing pass. Anderson had 100 yards on 22 attempts in the first half. The running lanes shriveled up in the second half as he was limited to 33 yards on 13 carries.

“We were running it left and right basically the whole game and they just finally decided to put a few more people in the box and blitz a little more,” Anderson said.

Whitworth only had three penalties and two turnovers, but each proved costly. Willamette didn’t commit a turnover.

“They’re having a special year and they just made a few more plays than we did,” Tully said.