Jake Sloss said it wasn’t until week five or six that he started to realize the kind of season he was having. That happened to be the time when the ADM senior wide receiver started to really heat up and forced the rest of Class 3A to take notice.

Sloss put together a streak of four 100-yard receiving games in weeks five through eight and scored a touchdown in each of his final six regular season games, including two scores in weeks seven and eight.

Sloss played like seniors are expected to play down the stretch, and his efforts propelled ADM to a playoff berth. It also catapulted him to a 1,000-yard receiving season (he finished with 1,002) along with 11 touchdowns, earning him first team All-State honors from the Iowa Newspaper Association on Tuesday.

Even Sloss didn’t see it coming.

“No I didn’t really think that I’d be a first-team All-State player. But I’m glad that it worked out like that. It shows that all my hard work paid off.

“It’s great to go out like that, especially in my last year.”

In all, Sloss registered five, 100-yard-plus receiving performances. He caught no fewer than three passes in any game for no less than 62 yards, and scored a touchdown in eight of ADM’s 10 games. During the aforementioned hot stretch from weeks five through eight, Sloss averaged 132 yards receiving and six catches per game, while scoring six touchdowns.