Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/85172
"This means a lot," Mauti said. "Ob- viously, having to play against these guys, it was sweet. We haven't forgot- ten what happened this summer. To be honest, we had that in the back of our minds, and that kept us going." The back of their minds? It was def- initely in there somewhere all right, but probably not the back. And Mauti? He was the most fired- up of all the Lions. "Before the game, that was as crazy as I've ever seen him," cornerback Stephon Morris said. "He was amped. He was on something. I don't know what he was on, but he was banging his head against the locker, doing some other things. He had the whole defense going – before the game, after the game, from the sideline." The first half ended on a note that was both strange and strangely ap- propriate given the tension between the two schools. With Illinois facing fourth-and-goal at the Penn State 2, Mauti stepped in front of a Nathan Scheelhaase pass and ran 99 yards before being brought down at the Illi- nois goal line. Replay officials ruled that Mauti had been stopped on the 1 with one second left to play. So Sam Ficken took the field and had a chip- shot field goal blocked, after which the teams scuffled a bit as they headed for the locker rooms. "I'm not sure exactly what hap- pened," said Mauti, who tried to break up a small skirmish that looked briefly as though it might es- calate into something bigger. "People just get tangled up in the pile, and people don't like to be on their backs in the pile." The tension surrounding this game stemmed from Illinois' aggressive at- tempts to lure Penn State players away over the summer when the NCAA essentially declared them all free agents. The Nittany Lions, partic- ularly Mauti, were up front about their displeasure with the NCAA and also with first-year Illinois coach Tim Beckman for dispatching a number of staff members to State College as soon as the sanctions were an- nounced. Those coaches set up shop near campus and called Penn State play- ers, offering a chance to leave for Champaign. Only one player – backup SCORING SUMMARY 1ST 10:41 6:29 2ND 3:11 3RD 10:22 3:15 4TH 14:03 PSU PSU PSU ILL PSU PSU Zwinak, Zach 1-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 8 plays, 26 yards, TOP 2:56........................................................................7-0 McGloin, Matt 1-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 8 plays, 60 yards, TOP 2:28.......................................................................14-0 Lehman, Matt 21-yard pass from McGloin, Matt (Ficken, Sam kick) 8 plays, 72 yards, TOP 2:52.......................................................................21-0 Harris, Spencer 22-yard pass from Ferguson, Josh (Zalewski, Taylor kick) 3 plays, 42 yards, TOP 1:15.......................................................................21-7 McGloin, Matt 1-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 8 plays, 57 yards, TOP 2:31.......................................................................28-7 Zwinak, Zach 1-yard run (Ficken, Sam kick) 7 plays, 50 yards, TOP 2:03.......................................................................35-7 offensive lineman Ryan Nowicki – took them up on it, but the Lions fumed at the time, and Beckman's ex- planation – that his program was only doing what the NCAA had allowed it to do – didn't soothe any of the resent- ment at Penn State. The Lions downplayed their initial comments during the week leading up to Saturday's game, but their silence did little to dispel speculation that both players and coaches were still fuming. And on Saturday, they did the only thing they could do in re- sponse to the situation: They followed Mauti's lead and manhandled the Illini, particularly on defense. "Any time you say things, it's very important to go out there and back it up," Penn State coach Bill O'Brien said. "That's kind of what life is all about in a way. [Mauti] is a guy who doesn't have a lot of problems backing things up." Mauti made one of the big plays of the first half, forcing a fumble on a punt that the Lions recovered at the Illinois 26. And after the drive stalled, forcing the Lions to turn to Ficken for a 24-yard field goal, the Illini ran into Ficken on the attempt, giving Penn State a first down that led to a 1-yard Zach Zwinak touch- down plunge. Illinois gave the Lions another big assist on their second drive, commit- ting a personal foul to turn a 10-yard catch by Brandon Moseby-Felder into a 25-yard gain that set up a 1-yard touchdown by Matt McGloin on a S E P T E M B E R 2 9 , 2 0 1 2 2 quarterback sneak. That's when things started to get chippy. The hard feelings surround- ing the game boiled over late in the first half, when Illinois defensive back Earnest Thomas III was ejected from the game for delivering a helmet-to- helmet blow in the end zone on a 21- yard touchdown catch by Matt Lehman. The hit left Lehman woozy, though he still finished as Penn State's top re- ceiver with 70 yards on five catches. "I had no idea it was coming," he said. "And there were a couple of other times I got hit pretty good." Illinois' only touchdown came on a gadget play in the third quarter, a halfback option pass, and Penn State countered it with two more touch- downs: a McGloin sneak and a 1-yard run by Zwinak, who finished with 100 rushing yards. The Lions will now look to maintain their momentum against a more for- midable opponent – Northwestern, which improved to 5-0 with a 44-29 victory against Indiana on Saturday. There's no apparent animosity be- tween these two programs, so the pregame coverage isn't likely to be as colorful as it was this past week. But the Lions are still plenty motivated now that they have a three-game win- ning streak to build upon. "Every game is just as important as any other one," Mauti said. "We only have a fixed number of games, so we're going to be just as rowdy and just as jacked up for every game." B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M