Pirates look for rebound

The Whitworth Pirates lost a football game and their starting quarterback on their trip to California last week.

The Pirates are back in California today, breaking in new starting quarterback Mike Peck under some tough circumstances. Whitworth faces Chapman University (1-0), which is coming off a six-win campaign in 2007 and handled Menlo 31-7 in its season opener two weeks ago, at 7 p.m. at Wilson Field in Orange, Calif.

Whitworth (1-1) was well on its way to its most lopsided defeat since 2002 when senior quarterback Kory Kemp went down with a broken fibula against Redlands. Kemp left in the second quarter with Whitworth in a 21-0 hole that would mushroom into a 38-7 setback. Peck’s 45-yard touchdown pass to Adam Anderson in the third quarter was one of the few offensive highlights while the Pirates’ defense yielded 25 first downs, four scoring drives of 71 yards or longer and 448 total yards.

“Our offensive line has to step up and play better and they’re capable of doing that. I have to put that on my shoulders,” Pirates coach John Tully said. “We really emphasized fundamentals this week, as we always do. We looked at, ‘Hey, here’s who we are and what we have to be able to do’ and emphasized those things in practice.”

Of the defense, Tully added, “We’re capable of playing a lot better and I anticipate we will.”

Peck, a 6-foot-2, 195-pound junior from Longview, Wash., has a strong throwing arm but doesn’t have Kemp’s mobility. True freshmen Andrew Durant and Cub Jansen played in spread offenses in high school but are still learning Whitworth’s system. Peck joined the Pirates in 2007 after a season at West Hills (Calif.) JC.

“All three are ready,” Tully said. “We’ll do many of the same things, but Mike won’t run quite as much as Kory. The big thing is to manage the offense in a positive way and that means the other guys are going to have to step up and play better.”

Whitworth figures to rely heavily on Anderson, who is averaging 207.5 all-purpose yards (rushing, receiving, kick returns).

Chapman quarterback Eric Marty passed for 198 yards and two touchdowns and Mike Christensen ran for 108 yards and two scores against Menlo.