Last year, James Yonushonis lost 174-pound matches to Lehigh. Twice.

Last Friday, Yonushonis no longer had to face Travis Frick, who he went 1-2 against last year, but the Penn State wrestling co-captain was still looking to avenge those losses.

Although Yonushonis trailed David Helfrich, 2-1, at the end of the second period, ranked No. 2 in the country in the 174-pound weight class, he needed most of the third period to knock off the No. 19-ranked Helfrich, 7-6.

What started out as a scoreless first period turned into a third period with many points exchanged.

Helfrich started off the third period with a one-point escape that was then followed by a Yonushonis takedown. Helfrich escaped again, which was returned by another Yonushonis takedown. Then, a locked hands call against Yonushonis tied the match at 5.

"I should have opened up a little earlier, went a little harder earlier on, went for a few shots. I went for a few takedowns earlier on. I was hoping to ride him after that one takedown, but I locked my hands. So with the interlocking call, I gave him a point. Not how I wanted to wrestle," Yonushonis said.

After the locked hands call, Helfrich managed to receive a point for an escape, putting Lehigh ahead 6-5. But Yonushonis never doubted that he would win the match.

"No, no," Yonushonis said, responding to whether he thought he might lose.

Penn State head coach Troy Sunderland shared the same confidence as Yonushonis, to an extent.

"Yeah, well I guess I was hesitantly confident. You know that's how James pulls those matches out. The third period is generally his and we could see Helfrich fading a little bit, but he had movement in his legs," Sunderland said.

With 30 seconds left in the match, Yonushonis took down Helfrich for the third and final time of the third period to win the match.

Yonushonis' win against Helfrich was important for Penn State as, prior to his match, Nathan Galloway and Mark Friend were both defeated, cutting Penn State's lead to 11-9. After Yonushonis' win, Phil Bomberger was defeated by Lehigh's David Craig at the 184-pound weight class, putting Lehigh within two points of Penn State.

Phil Davis, who also lost to Lehigh last year, won his match because of Lehigh's Matt Cassidy having to concede the match because of an injury. Penn State received six points from Davis' default win, thus putting Lehigh out of reach.

"I think they matched up well with us. Fortunately Phil and I were both able to avenge our previous losses. It was too bad, I think a couple of our guys could have wrestled better," Yonushonis said.