ADM football flies high again, volleyball off to best start in decade
Life in Adel has been rolling for the Tigers without a loss in a couple of sports this fall. (Note: Events covered Aug. 28-Sept. 3.)
Football (2-0)
The points continued to rain down for the Tigers, as ADM won 49-27 over Winterset on Friday. Simply put, Aiden Flora had himself a night. While the team’s identity has shifted to a more run-focused scheme (and picked up 261 yards on the ground), the night belonged to an efficient aerial attack that complemented the rush attack.
Flora led the team with 197 yards on the ground and four touchdowns but also posted 261 yards through the air with one score. That was over 21 yards per attempt, with credit going to the receiving corps and running backs’ run-after-catch ability. On run plays, Brevin Doll lit up the field with 167 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.
Doll only needed two catches for a total of 82 yards to his receiving stat line including one more score.
The Tigers’ challenge ratchets up a notch this week against Lewis Central (1-1), a team that has played two one-possession games so far but is coming off a one-loss season that was narrowly away from the state title in 2022. The Titans are led by a well-rounded backfield but quarterback play has been a tad suspect, with a 2:3 TD-INT ratio through three games.
Volleyball (9-0)
It hasn’t come without close calls, but the Tigers are undefeated two weeks into the 2023 season. At 9-0, it’s the program’s best start in over a decade, besting the 7-2 start in 2012 (a team that would win 16 straight games after losing the first two games.)
Keeping the team out of the loss column, ADM won all five of its home tournament matchups. While 2-0 wins over Woodward-Granger and Gilbert were good boosters, the major win was a 2-1 victory over Norwalk that truly tested everyone.
After losing 21-10 in the first set, the Tigers escaped with a 21-17 win and then completed the comeback with a 15-12 win in the tiebreaker. Madison Siefken played one of her best games, locking in 27 assists to help Marissa Gerleman up front with 10 kills. On a per-set basis, Siefkin ranks fifth among Class 4A players with 8.3 assists. Gerleman isn’t far out of that range, ranked seventh in terms of kills.
On defense, Madi James also came up big with 14 digs in that game. She’s ranked in the top 20 among the class digs leaders.
Cross Country
ADM had a tough draw for its first meet of the season. With home team Pella taking up spots 1-6 en route to the girls team winning, the Tigers managed to stand out from the rest for second place. With that, ADM learned it has a steady core group at the front with Allie Eggleston, Cora Shirley-Brown and Paige Mattes taking slots 8-10, respectively, finished seconds from each other. The former two are both freshmen, helping bolster the depth chart. Eggleston hit 21 minutes 13 seconds while Shirley-Brown was three seconds behind. Mattes wasn’t far behind at 22:04.
For the boys team, points were at an even greater premium as the crew landed in fourth place of eight teams. Torin Timmerman hung on to his leading role with the top time of 16:56 for sixth place. Isaac Chapman sat in 18th place at 17:34, followed two spots later by Shay Holdmeyer in 20th place.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: ADM football flies high again, volleyball off to best start in decade
