Pirates awarded home playoff game

Aside from the medical condition of starting quarterback Joel Clark, there wasn’t much suspense surrounding Sunday morning’s informal gathering of the Whitworth College Pirates, who met in the school’s Scotford Fitness Center to watch the NCAA Division III football pairings show play out on ESPN News.

The Pirates, after capping an unprecedented 10-win regular season and earning their first outright Northwest Conference championship with a convincing 44-27 home win over Puget Sound on Saturday, were expecting to receive not only one of the 32 playoff berths that were awarded, but a first-round home game, as well.

And those expectation were realized when the selection committee announced it would pair the unbeaten Bucs (10-0), ranked No. 8 in this week’s D3football.com Top 25 poll, against 10th-ranked Occidental College (9-0) in a first-round showdown that will kick off at noon on Saturday in the Pine Bowl.

“We kind of knew if we beat Puget Sound, we’d get a home game,” senior offensive lineman and team co-captain Steve Honeyman said following the pairings show. “But it’s still really exciting.

“I’ve spent five years here, so it’s great to get at least one more chance to come back and play in front our home crowd.”

Clark, the Bucs’ starting QB and all-time total offense leader, attended Sunday’s get-together limping badly and wearing a plastic cast on the swollen right ankle he injured in the first quarter of Saturday’s historic victory.

He said he still isn’t certain whether he will practice this week.

“It’s still a little tender,” he admitted, “but, best-case scenario, I’ll be back next Saturday.”

Clark, who played through the considerable pain of his early game ankle sprain to burn UPS for 379 yards and three touchdown through the air, said he spent two hours in the training room following Saturday’s game and had been icing and elevating his ankle as much as possible since then.

His goal, he said, is to join his fellow seniors in playing at least one more game in the Pine Bowl.

“It’s really exciting,” he said of the Pirates’ first-round pairing with Occidental, the regular-season champion of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. “Occidental is a legit good team, and we’re really happy to be hosting a playoff game.

“Now, it’s just a matter of trying to grind this thing out and get as far as we can.”

Occidental, which is led by senior quarterback and two-time SCIAC player of the year Andy Collins, is making its third consecutive playoff appearance after completing its unbeaten regular season with a thrilling 34-30 comeback win over SCIAC cellar-dweller Whittier on Saturday.

Whitworth has not been to the playoffs since 2001, when it tied for the NWC regular-season title with Linfield and Pacific Lutheran and then lost its opening-round game to PLU in overtime.

John Tully, who is in his 12th season as the Pirates’ head coach, was in Portland on Sunday attending the NWC’s annual coaches’ meeting and was not on hand to watch the pairings shows. But in a cell phone interview, Tully said he was elated to be rewarded for the best season in his school’s history with a first-round home game.

“It’s pretty awesome, that’s for sure,” he added. “It will be exciting to be at home in front of our own fans, and it will give us great exposure – not only for our college, but for Spokane, as well.”

Tully said he plans to stick with the same weekly schedule he has used throughout the season, giving his players Monday off before beginning preparation for Occidental. He said the two first-round opponents, by virtue of playoff protocol, will swap video of their last two or three games.

“It’s important that we keep things the same this time of year,” Tully said. “It’s our goal to have a game plan in place to present to the player on Tuesdays, just like always.”

Whitworth athletic director, Dr. Scott McQuilkin, who put in a bid to host both first- and second-round playoffs games – should the Pirates advance that far – with the NCAA late last month, said their will be no advance ticket sales for Saturday’s contest.

Tickets, he explained, will be sold at the gate prior to the game and will run $10 for adults and $5 for students, children and seniors.