After Sunday's heroic team performance over No. 10 Cornell, the Penn State wrestling team was hearing murmurs about a possible letdown against in-state rival Lock Haven. Last night, the Nittany Lions quashed those murmurs with a 33-7 victory.

The Lions quickly jumped out to a 19-0 lead before allowing a point and never looked back. For the Lions, the dual highlighted three technical falls by Joel Edwards, Brad Pataky and David Erwin. Dewitt Driscoll added a pin.

"I thought we did what we should have done. The kids wrestled hard. I don't think we were quite as crisp as we were on Sunday," Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. "We didn't have a letdown and that's a concern after a weekend like last weekend."

The most surprising defeat of the night came when Penn State freshman Brad Pataky, replacing Tim Haas who took the night off to rest, ran off with a 15-0 shutout against No. 17 Obie Blanc at 125 pounds. Sunderland said he thought Pataky had a good chance to beat Blanc, but never expected the rout.

"It was one of the match-ups. We knew it was going to be a pretty close, hard-fought battle. [Pataky] had lost to him last spring in a free style in Las Vegas," Sunderland said. "He turned it around completely. He dominated in every position."

Pataky said that gaining composure has been a key as he continues to make the transition from high school to college wrestling.

"I used to just go into matches in high school and rack up points," Pataky said. "When I wasn't racking up points at the beginning of the season, I was getting nervous. But working with the coaches has really helped my composure a lot."

The tightest match of the night came when No. 14 Nate Galloway of Penn State wrestled-off against No. 20 Seth Martin at 157. Sunderland said the rivalry between Galloway and Martin began in high school when Galloway pinned Martin during the state finals.

Galloway started quickly, and in attempting to obtain his stated goal of improving his offense, he notched

an early takedown that put him up 2-0 in the first 20 seconds of the bout. Martin tied the score with two escapes, the second coming to open the second period.

Galloway once again scored a takedown, and allowed Martin to escape, setting up a 4-3 score to go into period number three. Galloway chose to start the third period down after some prompting from Sunderland.

"I contemplated taking neutral, because I've been struggling a little bit from the down position, but coach told me to get down," Galloway said.

Galloway quickly escaped and rose to his feet. It was then that a controversial call by the referee nearly put Galloway out of the match. Up 5-3, Galloway got caught on his back while trying to roll away from a leg lock and the referee awarded two points to Martin for a takedown.

"It was questionable whether it was a takedown or not. It really could have gone either way," Sunderland said.

"I quickly calculated in my head and thought, 'Oh man, I'm in a tie match now, even though I dominated the first five minutes of the match,' " Galloway said.

With 40 seconds left, Galloway chose to start in the down position again and escaped with 24 seconds left and managed to hold on for the 6-5 victory.

"It was a good match for me personally. As a team, I don't know if we needed it," Galloway said. "Matches like tonight, you're capable of having some let downs. Other wrestlers on our team didn't have to bring their A-game. That can hurt you, not having to wrestle your best and still dominate your opponent."