Oct. 6, 2007

First-Half Turnovers Doom Lutes Against Defending NWC Champions

Box Score

Robert Thomsen - 12 total tackles

SPOKANE, Wash. – Whitworth's dominating first half was enough hold off a late Pacific Lutheran rally as the Pirates defeated the visiting Lutes 28-21 in a Northwest Conference football game at the Whitworth Pine Bowl.

Whitworth (4-1 overall, 2-0 NWC) took a 28-0 lead into half time, but saw PLU (4-1, 1-1) score two touchdowns in the final 2:15 to pull within a single score.

Adam Anderson ran for 170 yards on 27 carries to lead a Pirate ground attack that controlled possession for most of the game. Whitworth finished with 223 yards rushing against a Lute defense that had been the league's best running defense coming into the game, and finished with a time of possession advantage of 38:03 - 21:57.

Anderson set up the first Pirate touchdown when he broke around the right end on the second play of the game for a 61 yard carry to the PLU 13 yard line. A personal foul penalty moved the ball to the Lute seven yard line and three plays later Anderson carried in from the two to give Whitworth a lead after the first possession of the game. All 72 yards on the drive came on the ground.

On PLU's first possession, quarterback Brett Gordon completed a long pass to Ryan Alwert to the Whitworth 20 yard line, but Alwert was stripped of the ball by Whitworth safety Phil Entel and Ryan Marshall recovered for the Pirates. Whitworth then drove 80 yards in 15 plays, using 8:48 off of the clock, to go ahead 14-0 on a nine yard run.

After an exchange of punts, Gordon threw an interception at the PLU 38 yard line to set up Whitworth's next score. Quarterback Kory Kemp completed a play action pass to Pirates’ tight end Drew Griggs with 8:01 left in the half for a 21-0 Whitworth lead.

Late in the first half Gordon threw his second interception at the PLU 31 yard line, and Whitworth used most of the last 2:58 to score once more. On fourth and two at the Lutes' 26 yard line, another play action pass to Griggs was good over the middle for his second score to give Whitworth a four touchdown lead heading into intermission.

The halftime stats showed Whitworth with a 217-88 edge in total yards, an 11-2 advantage in first downs and a lead of 22:45 - 7:15 in time of possession.

Freshman wide receiver Greg Ford set the Lutes up at their own 40 yard line with his kick off return to open the second half, and PLU drove 60 yards in 12 plays for its first touchdown. Gordon carried in from one yard on third down, completing the drive that used 6:10.

Whitworth preferred to stay on the ground and use clock in the second half, playing a ball possession and field position battle that worked for most of the rest of the third and much of the fourth quarter. PLU punted on its next two possessions before taking over on its own three yard line with 5:25 to go in the game. The Lutes then drove 97 yards in 17 plays to score on a 10 yard pass from Gordon to senior wide receiver Craig Chiado with 2:14 to play, pulling PLU within 28-14.

A roughing the passer penalty on the touchdown pass was assessed on the kick off and PLU was able to attempt an onsides kick from the 45 yard line. The Lutes recovered at Whitworth's 39 and on the next play PLU pulled the hook and ladder when Gordon passed to Chiado at the Whitworth 25, where he lateralled the ball to Ford, who carried it the final 25 yards for a score to pull the Lutes within 28-21 with 2:04 to play.

That's when it got crazy. The Lutes attempted another onsides kick and after a scrum an official initially signaled the ball belonged to the Lutes. But after a meeting the officials ruled the ball belonged to the Pirates, but gave Whitworth a 15 yard personal foul penalty for piling on. The referees explained afterwards that the official verbally stated that it was Whitworth’s ball from the beginning, but he accidentally pointed toward PLU. Kemp downed the ball three times, and on fourth down at his own 27 yard line with five seconds left, Kemp ran back far enough to down the ball again after time had expired.

The final stats reveal an incredibly even match, with both yardage and first downs equal between the teams. Both teams gained 301total yards and 15 first downs, but the running and passing yards were very uneven. PLU threw for 247 yards and ran for 54, while Whitworth ran for 223 and threw for 78. While both teams had three sacks for 20 yards, Whitworth won the battle of turnovers. The teams came into the game ranked first and second in the NWC in turnover margin, but the Lutes turned the ball over three times and never forced the Pirates to turn the ball over, which was key to the 28-0 halftime deficit.

Gordon completed 19 of 35 passes for 247 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions in his first game back from a shoulder injury. Chiado caught eight passes for 67 yards and one score, and senior wide receiver Chase Reed had five catches for 53 yards. Reed led the Lutes on the ground with seven carries for 38 yards.

Senior defensive lineman Robert Thompson had 12 tackles, including a seven yard sack, to lead the PLU defense. Linebacker Chad Blau was in on ten stops and defensive end Andy Eisentrout, the NWC's leader in sacks, added another to his total for six yards.

PLU will try to rebound from its first loss of the season next Saturday against Menlo in the Lutes’ homecoming game at 1:30 p.m. at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup.

- PLU -