Pirates earn victory

No Anderson. No problem.

That was the attitude Whitworth University used Saturday afternoon in overcoming the early-game loss of senior tailback Adam Anderson to spank the University of La Verne 21-9 in a NCAA Division III non-conference football game in La Verne, Calif.

Anderson, the two-time Northwest Conference Player of the Year, left the game with an ankle injury following the opening kickoff, but his absence seemed to inspire Whitworth’s defense, which picked off three passes, limited La Verne (0-1) to 322 yards of offense and kept the Leopards out of the end zone until game’s final minute.

The Pirates (1-1) took a 7-0 lead – courtesy of Andrew Durant’s 15-yard second-quarter touchdown pass to Kyle Scroggins and then answered La Verne’s early fourth-quarter field goal with a 3-yard scoring run by sophomore Sean Scott and Cailen Thomason’s 35-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Cameron Stroyan and Alex Sankey also had interceptions for the Bucs, whose short-handed offense got 85 rushing yards from Scott and 170 passing yards from Durant.

CWU 34, West Texas A&M 10: Ryan Robertson threw for 256 yards and four touchdowns as Central Washington University (3-0) blistered visiting West Texas A&M (0-3) in Ellensburg. Johnny Spevak caught nine of Robertson’s passes for 121 yards and one TD.

Pomona-Pitzer 20, UPS 14 (OT): Visiting Pomona-Pitzer (1-0) scored on a fake field-goal play on its first overtime possession to spoil the University of Puget Sound’s NCAA Division III season opener in Tacoma. UPS quarterback Kavin Williams ran for one touchdown and passed for another, but the Loggers could not answer the Sagehens’ score in OT.

St. Olaf 46, PLU 7: John Haberman threw four touchdown passes in leading visiting St. Olaf (2-0) to a D-III non-conference rout of Pacific Lutheran in Puyallup, Wash. The Lutes (0-1) got their only score on a 63-yard pass from AJ Palazzolo to Greg Ford.

Whitworth 21, La Verne 9

Whit-Scroggins pass from Durant (Largent kick)

LV- FG Castaneda 34

Whit-Scott 3 run (Largent kick)

Whit-Thomas 35 interception return (Largent kick)

LV-Brown 16 pass from Winnewisser (kick failed)

Individual Statistics

Rushing–Whitworth, Scott 24-85, Milton 13-50, Durant 5-8, Jansen 3-4. La Verne, Quinn 7-41, Andre 9-26, Castaneda 3-24, Libran 1-5, Daniels 1-3, Winnewisser 2-minus 2, Ho 3-minus 2, Brown 4-minus 16.

Passing–Whitworth, Durant 12-18-1-170. La Verne, Andre 10-21-1-132, Winnewisser 8-14-2-111.

Receiving–Whitworth, Scroggins 3-54, E.Entel 3-51, Carlson 3-22, Wimberly 1-22, D.Entel 1-19, Largent 1-2. La Verne, Ho 9-135, Brown 2-31, Tobias 2-25, Gilbert 1-22, Robles 1-16, Castaneda 1-10, Morin 1-6, Libran 1-minus 2.