Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
SPOKANE, Wash. — Whitworth erased a 21-10 Pacific lead with 33 unanswered points as the Pirates rolled to a 50-33 Northwest Conference football victory over the Boxers in front of 1,411 fans at the Pine Bowl in Spokane.
With the victory, host Whitworth moved to 4-1 in conference play and to 7-1 overall. Pacific fell out of a second-place tie with the Pirates, dropping to 3-2 in the NWC and to 5-3 on the year.
Midway through the second quarter, the Boxers took an 11-point lead on a 20-yard pass from Warner Shawto Zak Porche. To that point, they had controlled the line of scrimmage and held a large time of possession edge. Shaw had already thrown three touchdown passes, including one to Nathan Suyematsu for 70 yards and another to James Berry for 20, both on slip screens. Bronson Barrettoand Kamana Pimental had combined to rush for well over 100 yards.
But the tide completely turned moments later.
Less than a minute after Porche's touchdown, Whitworth quarterback Ian Kolste found Mike McKeown for a 59-yard scoring strike to pull within five points (21-16). After a Pacific punt, Whitworth kept a drive alive with a fake punt and pass completion, and then proceeded to march down the field on a 13-play, 78-yard drive that culminated with a five-yard touchdown scramble by Kolste to give the Pirates the lead at 23-21.
After Shaw was intercepted on Pacific's next possession, the Pirates added one more score right before the break on Rehn Reiley's 19-yard field goal (26-21).
Whitworth owned the third quarter as well with two more touchdown runs by Kolste of 23 and eight yards, and Reiley added another field goal of 32 yards to put the game out of reach about five minutes into the fourth quarter at 43-21.
Kolste rushed for 68 yards and three scores, and threw for 386 yards (25-for-46, one TD). Duke DeGaetano rushed for 166 yards and two six-pointers as the Pirates had 648 yards of total offense. Garrett McKay had 10 catches for 116 yards and McKeown had seven grabs for 122 yards.
Pacific had 579 yards of total offense of its own, but also had four turnovers on the day. Shaw threw for 194 yards (13-for-25), yet had two interceptions--only his third and fourth of the season. He came out of the game in the fourth quarter after getting injured, and Campbell Summerfieldfinished up, connecting on 14 of 23 passes for 187 yards and two touchdowns.
Barretto had 107 yards on the ground and Pimental added 70 more. Barretto also had 68 yards on six catches, and had 116 return yards for 291 all-purpose yards. Fellow senior Berry had a career-best nine catches for 120 yards and three touchdowns of 20, 13 and 10 yards.. Suyematsu had his sixth 100+ yard receiving game of the year with five catches for 130 yards.
The two teams combined for 1,227 yards of total offense and each team had 29 first downs.
Pacific will return home for its final Hanson Stadium appearance of the season next Saturday (Nov. 7), hosting George Fox at 1 p.m. They will wrap up the year on Nov. 14 at Puget Sound.