The ADM football season officially came to a close last Wednesday evening with the Tigers’ 27-7 loss on the road to Carroll, but that score doesn’t paint a true picture of their first-round postseason defeat.

ADM went toe-for-toe with Carroll through the first three quarters before tailback Jon Dvorak and the opposing Tigers took advantage of great field position in the final period to put the game away.

Despite running out of gas late, ADM head coach Mike Whisner says he was happy with the effort and fire his team played with in the season’s final game.

“We talked all week about just playing with enthusiasm and getting after it.  The kids gave it everything they had.  We set our expectations to make the playoffs, and we met that expectation.  But when we got there, we competed against a 9th-rated Carroll that was a very physical and big team.”

Carroll’s physicality really hurt the Tigers late in Wednesday’s ballgame, as Dvorak scored on three touchdown runs right up the middle in the second 24 minutes.  Dvorak was slowed down by the ADM defense in the first half, but the bruising tailback ended the night with 259 yards rushing.

Even that rushing statistic blows things out of proportion for how well ADM’s defense played against Carroll though, and Whisner says he’s proud of how that unit bounced back to their old form in the final three weeks of the year.