ST. LOUIS -- Nobody ever said Josh Moore was the perfect wrestler. He has his flaws and, from time to time, they have been exposed. But one area in which Moore has never let himself down is mat intensity. No matter the situation, Moore would put it all on the line, punish his opponent and not hold anything back.

But Saturday night in St. Louis on the biggest stage that college wrestling can muster, the NCAA finals, Moore's intensity let him down when he needed it most.

Iowa State's Zach Roberson beat Moore for the 133-pound NCAA crown, 7-3, by negating Moore's one big advantage in the match, his physicality.

"I tried to be intense right off the bat, but I lost a little bit of focus, I stopped banging on him, I was too relaxed," Moore said.

Roberson took advantage and hit two lightning-quick shrug-by takedowns to build a 4-2 lead going into the second period. Roberson then wrapped up the match with a determined double-leg takedown on the edge of the mat with 10 seconds remaining.

In last year's NCAA tournament, Moore dominated Roberson in the 133-pound third-place match, 13-3, and was especially punishing from the top position.

This time, Moore never got the chance to use his punishing ride. When he had the choice to start the second period, Moore took bottom. Roberson took neutral to start the third and Moore could never take Roberson down.

"If I had the chance to do it over again, I probably would have taken top," Moore said. "When it was 4-3, I thought I could take him down, ride him out and win the match. It just didn't happen."

The irony, though, is that Moore put himself in position to wrestle for a title by being a little more calm than usual. Starting with a 1-0 win over Wisconsin's Ed Gutnik in the second round, Moore simply did what he had to do to win, reeling off three straight one-point victories on the way to the finals.

His one classic, jump-out-of-your-seat move was a memorable one though.

It came early in his quarterfinal match with Oklahoma State's two-time defending national champion, Johnny Thompson, the biggest match in Moore's career to that point.

Thompson shot in and looked to be close to finishing off the takedown. But Moore locked up a legs cradle and had Thompson fighting off his back.

That great move gave Moore a 5-0 lead and he held on to win 8-7.

In that match, arguably the Lions' tournament highlight, the Savvis Center was rocking, with almost every non-Oklahoma State fan in Moore's corner. It also represented a breakthrough of sorts for Penn State.

By winning, Moore became the first Lions wrestler to reach the semifinals in four years.

Then, in the semifinals against Daryl Vasquez of Cal Poly, Moore again took early leads of 2-0 and 4-2, then held on the rest of the way. He won 5-4 on the strength of a riding time point to become the first Penn State finalist since Jeremy Hunter did the same in 2000, also in St. Louis.

After his last match, Moore kept things in perspective. He didn't exactly look happy, but there were no tears or flashes of anger. There was just a look of frustration and disgust on his face.

"I've come a long way," Moore said. "At the beginning of the year, nobody thought I would get to the final. I'm proud of myself. I think I wrestled well the whole tournament."