DC motor from tetrix set not working with adafruit motor shi

[blasbeast]

Hi so I have a 12 volt DC gear motor from a tetrix set and am trying to operate it with an adafruit motor shield(V2.3 for arduino). I am powering the shield through a battery pack which also powers the arduino by the VIN jumper accessory. I believe all of the header pins are soldered correctly and the lights on both the arduino and the shield turn on when the power turns on. I am using the default sketch for testing a DC motor from the adafruit website and have the red and black wires from the motor connected into the two different M1 terminals. I connect to the computer with a USB cable and upload the sketch from my computer and it says it uploaded but nothing happens. Any suggestions?

[adafruit_support_bill]

These motors draw too much current to power via the motor shield safely. I have measured stall currents on Tetrix motors in excess of 7A. This is more than twice the rated peak current of the shield.