Looking like a student who had just finished his last exam of the semester, the Penn State men's soccer team was tremendously relieved when the final whistle blew yesterday.

The Nittany Lions (1-4-1) defeated Cal-State Fullerton (0-4-1), 2-0, yesterday at Jeffrey Field on the strength of both their offense and their defense. After scoring only one goal in five games, the Lions broke out and scored two on Fullerton.

"It's a monkey off the kids back. I can take it," said Penn State men' soccer coach Barry Gorman, referring to his team losing in four of its first five games.

Penn State peppered Titans goalkeeper Bobby Armstrong with 11 shots and forced them to give up 13 corner kicks. The Lions were only able to capitalize on one of those corner chances.

That conversion gave the Lions their first goal, as defenseman Markku Viitanen scored on a corner kick from the right side by Jeff Chambers.

Chambers sent the ball to junior forward Simon Omekanda, who deflected the ball to Viitanen in the box. The ball hit off Viitanen's chest, and he turned around and slipped it past a diving Armstrong.

It was Penn State's first goal since Jason Yeisley scored against James Madison, breaking a scoreless streak of nearly 300 minutes.

"The ball just bounced somewhere and I just turned around and [shot] it," Viitanen said.

The 6-foot tall defender finally showed off the offensive skills he always tells the rest of the team about.

"He always kids me in training that he should be up front," Gorman said with a smile. "After three years, it's about time he scored one."

For the next 63 minutes, the Lions and everyone in Jeffrey Field held their breath as the Titans mustered one last attempt to tie the game. The Lions had been in a similar situation against the Dukes, squandering a late, one-goal lead by giving up two scores in the last 10 minutes.

But the freshman forward Yeisley didn't allow history to repeat itself, as he capped off the scoring with a tremendous individual play at the 89-minute mark of the contest.

After a long clear by the Penn State defense, Yeisley showed off his speed and caught up with the ball a split second before Armstrong could grab it. He tapped the ball by the sprawling keeper and deposited it in the open net for his second goal of the season.

"We scored two goals [yesterday] that's twice as many as we've scored all season," Penn State senior midfielder David Walters added with a laugh.

The scene wasn't as cheerful Friday night, as the Lions fell 1-0 to No. 17 UCLA at home.

The Lions once again struggled to put the ball behind the keeper, sending 14 shots toward the net, none of them causing the scoreboard to bat an eye.

Penn State and UCLA played tight for almost 75 minutes, until Bruins senior forward Jonathan Bornstein netted his first goal of the season on a perfect pass from Kamani Hill.

"We have to play for 95 minutes," Viitanen said, referring to Lions tendency to give up late goals.

Gorman said on Friday night that the UCLA game was the best his team played all season, despite the tough loss. Walters backed up this thought yesterday.

"I think our attitude really changed on Friday night," Walters said. "Even though we lost, we still carried through to this game and hopefully the rest of the season."