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ception by tight end Matt Lehman with 3:11 left in the half. Ficken's PAT stretches the lead to 21-0, but the play of the game is still about three minutes away. Illinois drives 74 yards to the Penn State 4-yard line with 19 seconds remaining before the half. What happens next will be remembered as one of the greatest plays in Penn State football history. An Illini receiver appears to be open over the middle, just across the goal line, but Mauti snatches the ball out of the air and runs down the sideline, past the Illinois bench. Just as he nears the goal line, he is tackled from behind and ruled down at the 1-yard line. The ruling is reviewed in the press box and confirmed. With one second left, Ficken tries an 18-yard field goal, but it is blocked. As the teams head through the same tunnel to their dressing rooms, there is a little pushing and shoving. Early in the third quarter, a tricky 22yard halfback option pass gives Illinois a touchdown, but with 3:15 left in the quarter, McGloin scores from the 2yard line on a quarterback TALKING A GOOD sneak, and with Ficken's kick, GAME O'Brien said it becomes a 21-point margin again. Penn State scores once the Nittany Lions' vicagain early in the fourth quartory over the Illini ter, and on the last play of was "a really big win the game, the defense puts for us to get off on an exclamation point on Penn State's vengeful victory, as the right foot in the the Lions' reserves stop IlliBig Ten. handshake, O'Brien brushes nois on second-and-goal at by Beckman, hardly touching the 1-yard line to end an 87his hand and not looking at him. yard drive and a depressing day for Illini Many of the postgame comments from coach Tim Beckman. the players and some from O'Brien are Final score: 35–7. Statistics of the game: about Mauti. Several players talk about total domination by the Nittany Lions, as the linebacker's intense pregame dethey win just about every category, and meanor. Donnie Collins of the Scranton for the first time all year, Penn State calls Tribune writes that Mauti "stalked the far more running plays (55) than passes locker room like a man possessed, scream(30), with both Zwinak (19 carries for 100 ing – sometimes to himself – and gazing yards) and Bill Belton (16 carries for 65 toward the door, as if he couldn't wait for yards) having the best days of their careers the moment it would open so he could be to date. unleashed on the Illini." As the opposing head coaches run toward "That was the craziest I've ever seen the middle of the field for the traditional << Steve Manuel him, says Stephon Morris. "He was amped. " I don't know what he was on, but he was banging his head against the locker and all this other stuff. … He had the defense going before the game, the whole game on the sideline, after the game. He was on. " Mauti admits he was pumped beforehand and ecstatic in the locker room after the game was over: "Playing against these guys was sweet. That's really what it was. We never forgot about what happened back in the summer, and to be honest with you, we had that in the back of our minds. That kept us going, and like I said, it was sweet. " O'Brien tells reporters that Mauti isn't Lou Prato's "We Are Penn State: The Remarkable Journey of the 2012 Nittany Lions" can be ordered from Lou Prato (see advertisement, opposite page) or from Triumph Books at www.triumphbooks.com.

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