PELLA, Iowa - The University of Dubuque football team opened the American Rivers Conference play with a commanding 35-13 over the Central College Dutch on the road during Central's homecoming. UD led in the opening half 7-3 and broke the game open in the final 30 minutes of play to improve to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in A-R-C action. The Spartans finished the afternoon with 408 yards of offense (253 yards passing and 155 yards rushing) while holding the Dutch to 258 total yards.
UD scored on 4-5 chances in the red zone and held the edge in possession time 31:29 to 28:31 for the Dutch. The Spartans converted 4-12 in thrid downs and were 3-4 in fourth down conversions.
Individually,
Joey Rhomberg completed 19-24 passing attempts for 253 yards and four touchdowns with his longest being for 71 yards.
Cameron Brown led all receivers with five catches for 152 yards and a 71 touchdown with :51 seconds left in the third quarter.
Kali Freeman caught eight passes for 48 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Noah Rolling rushed for 73 yards on 11 carries (6.6 avg.) as teammate
Peter Lee Jr. ran the ball 13 times for 55 yards (4.2 avg) and a touchdown.
Brady Buchmann punted four times for 168 yards and placed the ball inside the 30 yard line three times and over 50 yards once (56).
Jay Rush returned a punt for eight yards and
Mekyael Hall returned a kickoff for 11 yards.
Bennett Harp kicked off six times for 304 yards (50.7 avg.) and was a perfect 5-5 in extra points.
Defensively
Ben Egan led UD in tackles with 10.
Jeremiah Speer finished with nine tackles,
Dre Jarvis had eight tackles, a half a sack for losses of two yards, but led the team with three important pass break-ups.
Giovanni Rivera also finished the afternoon with eight tackles, and added a half sack for losses of two yards and had one pass break-up.
The Spartans return home to Chalmers Field next week for their 2026 homecoming game when they play host to the Nebraska Wesleyan University Prairie Wolves with kick-off scheduled for 2:00 p.m. NWU lost at home to the #12 Wartburg College Knights 69-26.
