Showing no signs of rust from an eight-day layoff following the completion of the regular season, ADM boys soccer used a relentless outside attack to beat Atlantic 5-2 in the second round of the Class 2A Substate 8 playoffs Thursday night in Adel.
The Tigers will square off with Creston, which beat Glenwood, 1-0, on Thursday, for a state tournament berth in the Substate 8 final at noon Saturday at ADM Stadium.
“We came out ready to play. We took the game to ’em right from the first minute, and we could have scored in the first minute, in fact,” said Tigers head coach Bill Shields. “So I like that. I thought we were ready to play. We were engaged right from the beginning and I think they were really tired at the end. I think our fitness really [helped us] as well.”
As has been the case all season, senior Derek Gushiken lead the way offensively for ADM, registering a hat trick.
ADM lead by just a 2-1 margin at half despite dominating possession and creating a bevy of scoring chances. In the second half, ADM started converting on those chances with a flurry of goals over a 13-minute span.
Gushiken gave ADM a two-goal lead in the 43rd minute, taking a lob from John Maher down the right side, beating two defenders, and tapping it past Atlantic’s keeper.
Eight minutes later, Matthew Dobrzynski went on a long run from end to end and found Matthew Oberreuter, who went wide, cut back, and scored on an accuate angle.
Gushiken added another goal five minutes later to help seal the win, as Shields made mass substitutions.
“We took advantage of our opportunities much better in the second half than we had in the first,” Shields said. “We’d created the chances and we had the possession, we just didn’t finish very well at all in the first half, and we were much better in that regard in the second half.”
Gushiken opened the game’s scoring in the 11th minute. Daniel Finnegan fed Gushiken, who lobbed it over the head of the Trojans’ keeper. Atlantic tied it 11 minutes later with a rocket off the foot of Matt Smith from 25 yards out.
ADM took the lead for good in the 34th minute, when Johnny Reel won a ball at the edge of the penalty box and flipped it to Finnegan, who snuck a shot just inside the post from the opposite end of the box.