Pirates pillage Pioneers

Coach Chris Sulages knew coming in that his outmanned Lewis & Clark College football team would have to play mistake-free football – and catch a couple of big breaks, as well – to hang with unbeaten and 12th-ranked Whitworth.

“And, obviously, that didn’t happen,” Sulages said through a sheepish smile Saturday afternoon, just moments after watching the Pirates put a 70-3 Northwest Conference smackdown on his winless Pioneers in front of 3,650, the largest recorded crowd in the history of Whitworth’s Pine Bowl.

“The thing about Whitworth is that it’s hard to tell just how good they are. Obviously, they’re good, but they don’t have five guys who are just unbelievable. They’re just a consistent, solid, well-coached and mistake-free football team that does a lot good things. That’s their strength.”

The well-balanced Bucs (6-0 overall, 2-0 in the NWC) came up with a huge cast of heroes on the weather-perfect day as senior quarterback Joel Clark ran for one score and threw for three more to pass Denny Spurlock and move into the top spot on the school’s career touchdown passes list with 60.

In addition, first-year transfer Steve Silva hauled in his first two TD catches as a Pirate, and senior tight end Michael Allan caught a 34-yard scoring pass – the 24th of his career – to move into a tie with Sam Adams as the Bucs’ all-time co-leader in that category.

Lewis & Clark (0-5, 0-2), which canceled the Northwest Conference portion of its season last fall because of a lack of healthy players, arrived with fewer than 40 suited up for the game.

After marching 59 yards for a field goal on their first possession, the Pioneers let things get out of hand by turning Silva loose for the first of his two TD catches and throwing two interceptions that were returned by Jay Tully and Ryan Marshall for Whitworth touchdowns – all in a 2-minute stretch that spanned the first and second quarters.

The Pioneers threw five interceptions and fumbled the ball away once.

“That turnover deal was bad,” Sulages said. “We did some good things early in the first half and needed to keep doing them, but we didn’t.”

Whitworth coach John Tully was pleased with the mindset of his team, which stayed focused, pushed aside the distractions of homecoming week and refused to look past the lowly Pioneers.

“The big thing was, we wanted to come out and play good football and that’s what we did,” said Tully, who pulled his starters at halftime. “Our focus is to try to improve each week, and I thought our guys did a good job of doing that this week.”

Tully was also happy to see Silva, an immensely talented junior wideout from College of the Canyons (Calif.), finally find the end zone.

“He’s been such a big part of our offense this year, it was nice to see him finally get in,” he said.

“It felt good – really good,” said Silva, whose touchdown passes covered 45 and 25 yards. “Joel’s been telling me not to worry, that he was going to get me in.”

Clark, who is Whitworth’s all-time total offense leader, played only two quarters against the Pioneers, but completed 11 of 15 passes for 186 yards and rushed for 20 more on a first-quarter touchdown scamper that produced the game’s first score.

Silva finished with six receptions for 120 yards, and Allan caught three passes for 53 yards as the Bucs rolled up a lopsided 490-176 edge in total offense.

“All week, the coaches emphasized staying focused and not taking this team lightly,” Silva said. “We worked on a lot of mental stuff, just to keep something bad from happening.”

Whitworth will travel to Atherton, Calif., on Saturday to take on first-year NWC member Menlo in game that starts at noon.

Whitworth 70, Lewis & Clark 3

WC—Clark 20 run (Collings kick)

LC—FG Foote 33

WC—Silva 45 pass from Clark (Collings kick)

WC—Tully 40 interception return (Collings kick)

WC—Marshall 48 interception return (Collings kick)

WC—Silva 25 pass from Clark (Collings kick)

WC—Allan 34 pass from Clark (Collings kick)

WC—Havercroft 2 run (Collings kick)

WC—Griggs 2 pass from Luke (Collings kick)

WC—Stonemetz 1 run (Collings kick)

WC—Quarless 5 run (Collings kick)

A—3,650.

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Lewis & Clark, Osborne 7-26, Greenspan 4-21, Moyer 1-7, Mahr 2-5, Zerr-Smith 1-(minus 2), Brown 4-(minus 11). Whitworth, Nelson 9-84, Stonemetz 9-79, Havercroft 4-33, Quarless 12-29, Powell 4-25, Clark 1-20, Keirnes 5-6, Thomas 1-5, Luke 1-(minus 2), Koller 1-(minus 3).

PASSING—Lewis & Clark, Brown 11-30-5-115, Moyer 2-4-0-15. Whitworth, Clark 11-15-0-186, Luke 4-4-0-28.

RECEIVING—Lewis & Clark, Zerr-Smith 7-38, Osborne 3-48, Connelly 1-20, Anchustegui 1-18, Mahr 1-6. Whitworth, Silva 6-120, Allan 3-53, Tully 1-14, Espino 1-11, Thomas 1-9, Richardson 1-6, Griggs 1-2, Honeyman 1-(minus 1).