Dennis McCartan agrees: ADM is the No. 4-seed nobody wants to play.

McCartan, in his 11th year as head coach of Carroll football, had high praise on Tuesday for ADM and its high-powered passing attack. The ADM Tigers and head coach Mike Whisner will take on McCartan’s Tigers in Carroll Wednesday night at 7 p.m. for the opening round of the Class 3A playoffs.

At 8-1 and champions of District 2, Carroll is confident in what it can do on both sides of the ball and certainly doesn’t fear any other team. But McCartan did say ADM will be a tough out because ADM is riding a  three-game winning streak and is playing its best football. He was particularly impressed by ADM’s ability to spread the ball around through the air, saying he didn’t think there was anybody throwing at the same clip as ADM.

Carroll’s eight wins have come by an average margin of 30 points this season, though its final win was difficult. Carroll beat fellow playoff team Greene County 14-0 on Friday, and McCartan said that sent a message to his team that it has to play a complete game.

Whisner has been preaching a similar message to ADM, which was dominant offensively in the first half of its 35-30 win over Harlan, but then committed three turnovers in the second half and narrowly hung onto the lead. While ADM will look to keep its strong offensive play going, McCartan will turn to senior linebacker Ben Wellendorf, who leads Carroll with 60 tackles, 11 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks.

Wellendorf is in his second year as a starter.

“He’s just got a great nose for the ball. He has a very instinctive feel; he’s a very instinctive player,” McCartan said. “He called all the defenses for us last year, took all the signals and he’s our leader out there. It’s been great for him because he’s the man in the middle and he directs all the traffic.”

Our coverage of Wednesday’s first-round game begins at 6:15 p.m. on K107 and raccoonvalleyradio.com. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.