Like New York City police during New Year's in Times Square, the Penn State men's soccer team has had to work a lot of overtime.

Yesterday, the Nittany Lions won, 3-2, in overtime against Michigan at Jeffrey Field -- their fourth extra-frame victory in five games.

This time the hero for Penn State was freshman forward Jason Yeisley. He scored the golden goal 30 seconds into the first overtime, securing a perfect season for the Lions in the Big Ten. The Lions (9-6-2, 6-0 Big Ten) won five of their six conference games after regulation and are 5-1-2 in overtime this season.

"It's good, especially given the fact of what our regular season Big Ten record was last year," Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman said. "It doesn't matter what a team's record is, they're not gonna lie down, roll over and play dead. You have to come to play, and to go through undefeated with the parity there is now in the conference, that's something to be proud of."

The gamewinner began as an impressive show of speed from Lions sophomore defender Stephen Reihner. He streaked up the right side of the field, beat two Wolverine defenders and sent a cross to Yeisley in the box. Yeisley jumped and the ball grazed off his head and snuck past Michigan goalkeeper Peter Dzubay. It was the freshman's eighth goal of the season.

"I think it's just being at the right place at the right time," Gorman said. "It was a great run by Stephen Reihner. Stephen knew he was going to be in my doghouse if he didn't do something there."

Yeisley's goal capped a late Lions comeback after Reihner's first goal of the season forced overtime with a little less than 14 minutes to play in regulation.

Penn State got off to a good start. Sophomore defender Geordie MacNeill slammed home a rebound at the 32-minute mark to open the scoring. The goal, MacNeill's second of the season, made him Penn State's third-leading goal scorer.

In an uncharacteristic turn of events for the usually sound Lions defense, Michigan senior forward Ryan Alexander tied the game 18 seconds after MacNeill's goal. Penn State started the second half sloppily and conceded the lead to the Wolverines (8-7-1, 3-2 Big Ten).

"The team is at a point where it feels it has to play with its back against the wall before they start doing something," Gorman said.

The goal was a tremendous effort by Michigan's 5-foot-6 freshman forward Jake Stacy. He curled the ball around Lions' defender David Gray, who was in good position, and it squeezed between goalie Conrad Taylor and the left post.

However, Reihner and Yeisley's heroics eliminated the Michigan lead, and kept Penn State alive for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament -- that's if the Lions don't claim the automatic bid from winning the Big Ten Tournament, where they will be the No. 1 seed.

"I feel like at the beginning of the season, these kind of games, [we were] not being there at the end," Penn State junior forward Simon Omekanda said. "I think as the season went on, we got luckier. But as coach always says, the better teams seem to get luckier."

Yesterday's victory clinched an undefeated conference season for Penn State. It was the first time since 1990, when the Lions were in the Atlantic 10, and was a feat that was not overlooked by senior co-captain David Walters.

"One more game left at home, that was the last Big Ten, it goes so quick I wouldn't change it any other way," he said. "I don't wanna come back next year in case we don't go undefeated, but I'd rather go out this way."