The meet had all the hype of a heavyweight fight out of a movie.

The undefeated and undisputed No. 1 team in the country, the Minnesota Golden Gophers, and the underdog No. 10 Penn State wrestling team squared off in front of a standing-room-only crowd of 5,400-plus at Rec Hall, with the drama unfolding live on CSTV.

But the result was more realistic than Hollywood magic as the Nittany Lions (9-3, 1-3 Big Ten) dropped their third Big Ten dual meet of the season, 25-16 yesterday.

The drama heading into the final two bouts would have made any Academy-Award winning screenwriter proud. With the score 21-10 following two straight close losses in swing matches at 125 and 133, the meet looked to be all but over. The Lions would need at least a pin and a technical fall just to tie, or two pins to win.

Enter senior DeWitt Driscoll.

Driscoll followed the script word-for-word, pinning No. 19 Manuel Rivera 2:19 into the first period. After bringing the crowd to it feet, Driscoll went to the bench and started the "We Are" chant.

"I had my mind made up that I was gonna pin him today from like a week ago, I knew that's what I wanted to do," Driscoll said. "I saw the score coming down and I said, [Hass] is gonna win, [Strayer's] gonna win, I'm gonna pin him. It's over. We'll be up by seven then and it's over.

"Then those guys lost unfortunately, and then definitely, I was just angry. But I made up my mind a long time ago I was gonna pin him. I wasn't leaving that mat unless he was pinned."

Driscoll's pin set the stage for fellow senior James Woodall to complete the Hollywood ending. Woodall, a sixth-year senior, played the part of the million-to-one shot given the chance to win the big match.

The only thing he had to do was pin the No. 1 wrestler in his weight class.

His opponent, true freshman Dustin Schlatter, was the Gophers wonderkid who had compiled a remarkable 28-1 record and has rarely been taken down.

That was as far as the analogy went, as Schlatter took care of Woodall easily, winning, 11-0, and clinching the match for the Gophers.

"That wasn't the match I wanted to have on Senior Day," Woodall said. "Obviously he's a real tough kid, and my style doesn't really match up with his. I wish it could have got to more of a brawl match where we just go in and push each other. He's just really slick and he's a tough wrestler."

The match was back-and-forth for the entire afternoon. Neither team was able to pull away and take control.

The Gophers got the first emotional swing at 157 when No. 6 C.P. Schlatter easily disposed of Penn State's Nathan Galloway with a decisive 8-3 victory. Freshman David Erwin didn't fare much better in his match against Matt Nagel, as he was pinned 50 seconds into the match, giving him his first loss of the season.

With the match seemingly slipping away, junior James Yonushonis saved the meet for Penn State.

Yonushonis' pulled out a close 5-4 victory against Gabriel Dretsch, the wrestler who had beaten him last year and ended his chances of going to nationals.

"I was just trying to focus on my match and not worry about the team score," Yonushonis said.

The one-point wins at 174 and 184 set the stage for No. 6 Phil Davis to give the Lions some much-needed separation. Davis had a very good shot of gaining three bonus points with a pin because Minnesota's Mitch Kuhlman entered the match with a sub-.500 record. Kuhlman held off Davis by employing the I-just-don't-wan-to-get-pinned strategy and lost, as expected, by a large margin, 13-1.

But the weekend was not a total wash for the Lions. On Friday night, the Lions dominated No. 18 Michigan State, 27-12. Penn State racked up the bonus points by recording one pin and three major decisions. Galloway picked up the fastest pin by completing an out-of-nowhere flip on Tony Greathouse 1:46 into the first period.

"The kids represented the program well and competed against Minnesota," Penn State coach Troy Sunderland said. "We're not that far off, but we got to make some adjustments and wrestle smarter and harder."