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They led Plymouth by 20 points, blew the lead and allowed Plymouth to tie but won.
They fell behind 14-0 at state-ranked NorthWood, rallied to send the game to overtime and won.
They raced ahead of Goshen by 20 points, let the Redskins back in it but won.
Tonight Warsaw's football team can see the payoff for winning those three regular season games and others. Tonight 7-1 Warsaw can win the Northern Lakes Conference title by hosting and beating 2-6 Concord.
At 5-0, Warsaw is the only undefeated team left in the NLC. Concord is 1-4 in the NLC. Warsaw shared the NLC title last season, but beating Concord would give the school its first outright conference title since 1990.
The road to this championship game was blasted open by a behemoth offensive line with players bigger than those on the Denver Broncos' offensive line.
Denver's offensive line, annually considered one of the best in the NFL, has no starters who weigh 300 pounds. Warsaw Community High School features three offensive linemen who weigh more than 300 pounds and a handful of others who are 235-plus.
Most, if not all, opposing coaches say Warsaw's biggest edge is its offensive line.
"It's just because we're so big and have so many big players," Jensen said.
"Most schools have one player over 300 pounds. We have three over 300."
The line consists of 6-foot-7, 360-pound Daniel Meza at left tackle, 220-pound Jarod Leasure at left guard, 235-pound Matt Townsend at center, 315-pound Nick Perkins at right guard and 300-pound senior Caleb Churchill at right tackle. Two hundred forty-five pound Greg Scalet also plays on the line.
A year ago Warsaw's offense featured flash with quarterback Greg Seiss, wide receiver Ross Kesler and tight end Zach Nelson.
All three graduated. This year's Warsaw offense turned smash-mouth. Jensen began planning the change soon after last year's sectional loss to Penn.
"We knew our linemen were back, and since we had Brad (Seiss), we knew we wanted to run the football," Jensen said. "That would be the point of emphasis."
The beneficiary of this line is speedy 17-year-old junior Seiss. He'll run inside the tackles for tough yards; he'll go outside and use his speed to get around defenses. He says his biggest strength is "finding the holes and getting through them fast."
The 6-foot, 190-pound running back already has set one school record, rushing for 310 yards in a 63-13 win at Wawasee. His 310 yards broke Rod Wildman's previous single-game rushing record of 281 yards, set in 1973 against Columbia City.
The last thing a Warsaw team heavily favored to win that game needed was extra motivation, but Wawasee supplied it anyway.
"A couple of their players predicted (Wawasee) would win 28-14, and they knocked our defense, saying look what so and so did to them," Seiss said. "If they did that, we can do that."
Seiss is putting up eye-popping numbers despite missing games after suffering a concussion in the season opener at Columbia City. He didn't play against Northridge and Gary Wallace. Without Seiss, the Tigers still tallied more than 400 rushing yards in the two games combined.
Seiss is just one in a junior class full of talented running backs.
Complementing him are David Muta, Grady Randall and Stanton Moore. Randall, filling in for Seiss when he was out, rushed for more than 200 yards in one game.
This is why Seiss credits the offensive line for Warsaw's average of 252 rushing yards per game.
"Our line deserves all the credit," he said. "Against Wawasee, they opened up truck-sized holes. Anybody could have gone through them. Because of them, we had the ball the whole third quarter against Wawasee."
The Wawasee game gave Seiss the most individual notoriety. But Jensen was more amazed that Seiss ran for 197 yards at top 10 NorthWood, a team that has lost fewer than 15 home games in the last 10 years.
"Everyone talks about the last time we beat them at their place," Jensen said. "I would like to know the last time someone ran for 197 yards against their defense at their place.
"I talked to another coach, and he told me to tell Seiss it was the hardest I have ever seen anyone run."
Seiss is not the only Warsaw player who will set a record this season.
Seventeen-year-old senior inside linebacker Kris Hueber is two tackles away from tying the school record for tackles in a season. He has 107 solo and assisted tackles, and the record is 109, set by inside linebacker Ben Long in 1995. He has started the last two years and played as a situational linebacker his sophomore year.
Warsaw considers him the heart of the defense.
"It all starts with him," Jensen said. "He relays the defensive calls to the defense from coach Troy Akers. He's in charge of our defense. He's very coachable and has an unbelievable work ethic.
"He defends both the pass and run well. He'll come up and hit you, but then look at last week, he had the big interception against NorthWood and blocked some kicks. He can do it all."
Said Hueber, who plans to play football in college but is undecided where: "Part of it's intelligence. A lot of the time I know what the other team will be doing. Aggressiveness is a lot of it. I try to fly to the ball as much as possible and always try to make all the plays."
Warsaw also has 14 interceptions, four off the team record. Jensen doesn't consider himself a numbers guy, but this is one record that he boasts about.
"People talk about the offense we lost with Greg, Zach and Ross, but we graduated nine guys on defense," he said. "We're giving up 15 points per game this year. We have guys flying to the football."
The numbers aren't limited to offense and defense. Special teams are posting impressive numbers too. Senior punter Jared Scrafton is No. 3 in the state with an average distance of 38.6 yards per punt.
"Scrafton is third in the state in punting and probably would be No. 1 if I wouldn't have him punt out of bounds," Jensen said. "The reason is, he would outkick his coverage. We make him directional kick into corners, and that takes off his average."
For all the wins, Warsaw has yet to crack the top 10 in the AP or coaches' polls. Hueber believes Warsaw is slowly but surely changing the way people view the football program.
"We're starting to get recognition, but we don't have it yet," he said. "Winning (tonight) will help. But two years in a row won't make everybody give you respect. We're just starting to build a tradition. Now it will be up to the younger kids to keep it up when we're gone. That's what Goshen and NorthWood do."
Last year's team shared the NLC title. This year's team is in line for sole possession of the NLC title. Records are falling. You would think this year has been perfect for Jensen.
You would be wrong. Asked if it's been the most emotionally challenging year of his coaching career, he said, "By far. Personally, I've been struggling."
Jensen's father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the first week of July.
He died less than two months later.
"He was always there, middle school, high school or college," Jensen said. "He was my biggest fan."
This was proved on Aug. 18, 2000, when Warsaw opened its season at Columbia City.
"He got to be there at the Columbia City game and watched the first half," Jensen said.
The ailing father wanted to see the son coach a game. The event affected the emotional Jensen so much he refused postgame interviews and sent an assistant to speak for him.
Losing his father shook Jensen. He estimates it took three or four weeks until he was himself with the team again. Even now, talking about his father causes Jensen to get quiet and a heaviness to hang in the air. Jensen wipes his eyes.
"But it's not about me," he said. "It's about the team."
The coach has his team in position to claim its first outright NLC title since 1990.
