Game Leaders
Team Stats
Passing Yards
Rushing Yards
Turnovers
Time of Poss.
DUBUQUE, Iowa - The University of Dubuque football welcomed the American Rivers Conference season on Senior Day Saturday on Chalmers Field. The Spartans trailed early 7-0, but rallied from behind to score 28 unanswered points to grab the lead and never looked back. Simpson scored on an eight play drive midway through the fourth quarter to slice into the Spartans lead as UD captured the league opener 28-14.
UD scored their first touchdown at 5:51 of the first quarter off a 10 plays, 63 yard drive which finished with a one yard pass from Jamari Jenkins to Nathan Beneke. UD added another just minutes later at 1:08 left of the first of a five yard pass from Ben Gultig to Za'Cameron Brice to take the lead 14-7. Gultig would find Jenkins from four yards out with 7:27 left of the second quarter to increase the lead to 21-7. UD's defense stepped early in the third at 14:18 when Channing Williams intercepted the Storm and ran it pack for a 29 yard pick six to extend UD's lead to 28-7. Joseph Xiya was a perfect 4-4 in extra points and kicked off five times for 271 yards for an average of 54.2 yards.
The Spartans earned 20 first downs and finished with a third down efficiency of 46% after going 6-13 and a fourth down efficiency of 67% when they made 2-3 attempts. UD compiled 391 yards of total offense after running 76 plays in the victory. Ben Gultig led passing after completing 25-36 attempts for 261 yards and two touchdowns. Brice was his favorite target with seven catches for 95 yards. Jenkins caught eight passes for 44 yards with his longest being for 10 yards. Dereck-Earl Saint-Hilaire and Hunter Preston both grabbed five catches with 81 yards and 25 yards respectively. Tyler Olejniczak rushed 21 times for 111 yards with his longest scamper being for a 17 yard gain.
Defensively UD was led by CJ Dean who finished with seven tackles. Parker Navitsky, Stone Gorman, Channing Williams, and Joziah Perez all finished with six tackles each. Perez led with 2.5 tackles for losses of 10 yards including 1.5 sacks for losses of seven yards.
Next week the Spartans (1-2 overall, 1-0 in A-R-C) will travel to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to face the Coe College Kohawks (3-0 overall, 1-0 in A-R-C) at 1:00 p.m. Coe opened A-R-C with a shutout over the Luther College Norse 63-0. Other league scores included a tight 10-6 score with the Wartburg College Knights capturing the road win at Central College. Buena Vista University edged out a 20-17 road win at Loras College.