It's official: Penn State freshman forward Simon Omekanda is the real deal, and opposing coaches know it.

"Obviously, Penn State has an exciting young forward," said Hartwick coach Ian McIntyre.

"We know about Simon," said Boston College coach Ian Hennessy.

When a player scores two game-winning goals and wins a tournament MVP award, as Omekanda did at last weekend's Buckeye Classic, enemy coaches are going to notice. Omekanda's opponents for this weekend will be focused on preventing a repeat performance when the Nittany Lions (2-2) host Boston College at 7 p.m. today and Hartwick 7 p.m. Saturday in the Penn State Nike Classic at Jeffery Field.

With all the attention on Omekanda -- he was chosen for two national teams-of-the-week -- might now be the time for All-American candidate Chad Severs to get some more quality scoring chances?

"If they start to focus on Omekanda, [Severs] will pick up the slack," said Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman. "[Severs'] charge and his directive have not changed -- he has to score goals."

Omekanda said he isn't fazed by the recognition he's getting so early in his collegiate career.

"I don't let that kind of stuff affect me," he said. "If anything, I'm going to feed off that respect from defenders and make them respect me even more."

Omekanda and Severs will be looking to create their own opportunities this weekend -- especially against Hartwick. The 13th-ranked Hawks play a controlled, slow-paced style that allows opposing teams to create more pressure -- and turnovers -- on defenders possessing the ball.

"That's the style I like to play against," Omekanda said. "If we know they want to bring it up slow, we can put more pressure on the backs and create more opportunities from their mistakes."

Hartwick and Boston College -- who was ranked in the pre-season top 25 but dropped out when it suffered some close losses -- have talented players of their own to bring to Happy Valley, including Boston College defender and Hermann Trophy candidate Guy Melamed. However, Gorman said his team's main focus isn't what other teams will do, but what they have to do personally to win games.

The wins should come naturally after that, he said. On the defensive side, the Lions have started to sure things up. The team was happy to learn the knee injury suffered by starting defender Paul Omekanda, the older brother of Simon, is not serious enough to keep him out of the action this weekend. The older Omekanda said he expects to start today.

In the other half of the Nike Classic, Ohio State faces Hartwick at 5 p.m. tonight and Boston College faces Ohio State at 5 p.m. Saturday.

The Boston College vs. Penn State game is being broadcast on tape-delay by CN8, a Comcast network, and re-broadcasts locally on CNET channel 7 at 8 p.m. on Saturday, according to Penn State sports information.