‘Wake-up call’: Looking to bounce back from first loss, Whitworth football is focused on Saturday’s D-III playoff game

Let’s have a second season.

This is the collective position of Whitworth players and coaches. The expanded 40-team NCAA Division III playoffs meant there was room left for the Pirates (9-1).

Beech’s resume convinced the committee. Now they want to prove their belonging.

Aside from losing to Linfield for the Northwest Conference title, the Pirates’ goal has always been to make the playoffs. And they set a goal to advance past the second round a year ago when they lost 42-20 to Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa.

The first step toward a deeper run begins Saturday when Pomona-Pitzer Sagueens (8-2) visits. Kickoff at the Pine Bowl will be at noon. Tickets can be purchased through Whitworth’s Hometown Ticketing app. Cost is $12 for adults and $6 for seniors, students and children.

“I’m really grateful for another opportunity,” fifth-year receiver Evan Liggett said.

Whitworth coach Rod Sandberg said he didn’t spend much time reflecting on the 34-7 loss to Linfield.

“We’ll highlight some games that were a little out of character and how we can do better and start moving on to the next opponent,” Sandberg said.

Defenseman Ryan Blair said it was time to move on.

“The biggest thing is just to understand that it’s just another season,” Blair said. “We can use the last game as a wake-up call for ourselves. This was the best team we have ever played. We know from now on it will be teams like (Linfield). No game will be easy.”

Liggett agreed to study and leave Saturday behind.

“We’ll do what we always do – we’ll come into the film room and look at our mistakes and see how we can improve and see how we need to adapt,” Liggett said. “There are obviously a lot of changes that need to be made. We’ll take them off, fix them in training and get ready for the game.”

Junior running back Luis Salgado is looking forward to Saturday’s challenge.

“We’ll be a much better football team after (the loss),” Salgado said. “It will be interesting to see how our team reacts. We just need to be ourselves. Sometimes defeat can be more rewarding than victory. We are now at a crossroads. We can either give up after what happened last week or we can accept what happened and move on and become a better team because of it.”

Senior guard JT Munoz knows the Pirates deserve to play on Saturday.

“We knew we played well early in the season and put ourselves in the best situation to make the playoffs,” Munoz said.

Whitworth has played Pimona against Pitzer four times, but his last game came in 2011. However, in some ways, “Pirates” is familiar with “Sagehen”.

The teams have two common opponents – Chapman and Pacific. The Sagueens, who are making their second playoff appearance in three years, traveled to Pacific in late September and lost 45-14.

Pomona-Pitzer beat Chapman twice, 21-17 on the road Oct. 19 and 37-34 in a wild comeback at home that clinched an automatic playoff berth on Saturday.

Whitworth beat visiting Chapman 35-27 in late September and held Pacific 39-32 three weeks ago as Salgado broke the school rushing record with 365 yards.

Chapman seemed to have the game in hand against the Sagueens as they led 28-7 at half-time. But Pomona-Pitzer made a furious rally, scoring a touchdown with 28 seconds left. Chapman’s 50-yard field goal attempt went wide in the final seconds.

“It shows they have a lot of fight in them,” Liggett said. “They will be a good team and we will have to be ready to play. We need to call.

Sageens sophomore dual-threat guard Grady Russo had his best game of the season. He accounted for all but four yards of the Sagehans’ total offense. He completed 35 of 49 passes for 397 yards and four touchdowns and also ran for 64 yards and one touchdown. He would have had 102 yards on the ground, but he would have been sacked six times.

Sandberg said that every time a team pursues a goal, there is a chance of failure. He knows his team will be ready for a second chance on Saturday.

“We were getting there and we had a dream,” Sandberg said. “You go after it and don’t achieve it, it’s hard. Will this continue or are we going to get rid of it? We have 32 pensioners. We have a mature team.”