SPOKANE, Wash. - For the Whitworth Pirates, playoffs aren’t the achievement, but the expectation.

“I think that’s the beauty of Pirate football," quarterback Logan Lacio. "We know the standard, we know how we can play, and we realized we weren’t playing to that standard, so that bye week in-between conference play and non-conference, that was a big turnaround for us.”

Whitworth surges into the DIII playoffs after winning seven-straight games following a 1-2 start. They swept conference play and cinched their third Northwest Conference crown under head coach Rod Sandberg.

“Extremely rewarding," Sandberg said. "This is just a group of guys that believed in each other, trusted each other even when adversity hit. Came together, went to work, trusted the process, and really awesome that they

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