Assistant coach Jay Paterno said the football team's goal-line stand against Indiana this season might be one of the biggest moments in the team's history and pulled the team out of its rut.

For Penn State wrestling, the win Saturday against No. 17 Northwestern and junior DeWitt Driscoll's pin may do just that for its season.

Coming off a 26-6 loss to No. 2 Illinois and trailing 13-3 against the Wildcats, the No. 14 Nittany Lions (10-9, 3-4 Big Ten) were on their way to securing a winless Big Ten road schedule.

The Lions turned to the three guys who didn't deliver against Iowa last weekend to rally Penn State and pull off the 23-16 win against Northwestern, preventing a winless Big Ten road schedule.

No. 18 Brian Heller (133 pounds), No. 12 Driscoll (141 pounds) and No. 18 Nate Galloway (157 pounds) were instrumental as the Lions won their last five matches of the meet.

Heller's major decision against Daniel Quintela started the machinery turning, but it was Driscoll who turned around the meet. Facing No. 11 Ryan Lang, Driscoll earned the fall at 2:12 to tie the overall score at 13.

"The two were scrambling a bit and rolling around," Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. "He got ... his shoulders down and the ref called it."

This provided a huge momentum swing.

"If he doesn't get the pin there, things may happen differently," Sunderland said.

The win was Driscoll's third against a higher-ranked opponent since the calendar flipped, but his problem has been consistency. He embodied it this weekend. Just 24 hours before pinning Lang, he dropped a 4-2 decision to unranked Illini wrestler Cassio Pero, a similar situation to that against Iowa.

"I joked with him that he needs to wrestle every match like he lost the one before it," Sunderland said. "If he wants to be Big Ten champ, All-American, or NCAA champ, you can't win one, lose one. It won't get you very far."

True freshman Jack Decker's struggles at 149 pounds have been well documented, but he may have turned a corner as he won a major decision to add a third straight win for the Lions.

Senior Jarrad Turner then closed the match out with his first dual meet win of the year, a 6-4 overtime triumph against Mike Kimberlin.

"It was nice for Jarrad," Sunderland said. "For him to get an overtime win, it was a good way to close the weekend."

For the most part, Penn State showed promise in the two dual meets because everyone walked away with a win, except for sophomore James Yonushonis, the Lions' 174-pound grappler.

Thirteenth-ranked Phil Davis, a freshman, saw his consecutive-win streak snapped at 10, but still managed to beat No. 9 Tyrone Byrd of Illinois on Friday in the 197-pound clash. Junior heavyweight Joel Edwards also walked away from the Illinois match with a win.