ADM fell to 3-2 on the season and 2-1 in district play with its loss to Lewis Central last week, but little fault for the loss can be pointed in the direction of the defense.

The defense held Lewis Central to just 88 yards of total offense in the first half, and defensive coordinator Bric Nelson says he implored his players to continue with that effort during the halftime break.

“They had a great defense and our offense was having struggles moving the ball on them.  So, I told the guys at halftime I said, ‘now listen, we can shut this team out, and the only way we’re not going to is if they capitalize on big plays’.”

And unfortunately for ADM, Lewis Central came right out of the break with one of those big plays–Austin Simmons connected with star wideout Jake Rodgers for a 56-yard touchdown that ended up being the difference.

“Whatever they connected for, the 56 yards–yeah we made a card of that for our scout team, we had it broken down on film. We were showing it to them that ‘they will run this against us because they’ve had success against other teams with it when they’re needing a big strike’.  That to me was very frustrating because it was something we went over and it got down to game time and…blown assignment.”

Nelson says he felt his unit played a solid game overall last week but that there is still plenty of room to get better.  One area in particular he wants to see improve: creating turnovers.

Nelson says the the more opportunities his unit can give the offense, the better the chances are that the offense can get back on track in the games ahead.