What to do for an encore?

That's the question surrounding the Penn State men's soccer team as it heads south to battle Colonial Athletic Association foe George Mason (3-3) at 8 p.m. tomorrow in Fairfax, Va.

The Nittany Lions (2-4-1) are flying high after a 1-0 upset win over No. 6 Maryland Wednesday night, but Penn State has to be wary of a letdown after such a huge win.

"It has been a problem in the past," Penn State forward Brian Devlin said. "But we have to keep playing well and keep winning."

Motivation shouldn't be lacking, especially after George Mason forced a scoreless tie at Jeffrey Field last season, which was the second of three such draws for the Lions --the only one at home.

The 2005 version of the Patriots is coming off a 3-1 win against La Salle, ending a three-game losing streak. They bring a much different look than Penn State has seen in its past three matches.

"[The Patriots] are a much more physical team then we've seen," Devlin said. "We just have to keep the ball low, and we should be able to control the ball more then we did [Wednesday night]."

Being able to control the midfield will naturally help the Lions create more scoring chances, and Penn State should be able to finish against the shoddy George Mason defense. The Patriots have given up 10 goals in six games against teams whose offenses aren't nearly as potentially potent as the Lions.

"They will be very concerned with our attack, unlike UCLA and [Cal-State Fullerton] who would come to play," Penn State coach Barry Gorman said. "It shouldn't be a very open game."

This will ideally allow the Penn State offense to be able to overcome any type of letdown that may occur at George Mason Stadium Saturday night. Since a horrendous first weekend when the Lions could only muster one shot on goal, Penn State has shown why it was picked to finish second in the Big Ten preseason poll.

Forwards Jason Yeisley and Simon Omekanda have been able to use their speed and ball-handling abilities to improve Penn State's attack. So it is no surprise that Omekanda and Yeisley have combined for three of the four Lions goals on the season.

"They never played with each other before, so it was just about having time to jell," Gorman said.

If the offense sputters, Penn State can depend on its backbone -- the defense. Centerbacks Markku Viitanen and Geordie MacNeill have played tremendous defense over the last three games, allowing the opposition to get six shots on goal and 11 shots overall.

And if all that fails, the Lions will be counting on sophomore goalkeeper Conrad Taylor, who currently has a shutout streak of almost 194 minutes. This is his longest such streak since he didn't allow a goal for almost 458 minutes over more than four-and-a-half games last season.

Injuries, injuries

Yeisley has a follow-up appointment scheduled for his stitched-up lip, which was split-open when his tooth came through it against Maryland ... Sophomore midfielder Dan Shaffer, who has been out with a pulled hamstring, is expected back next week ... After Wednesday night's ordeal in the training room, in which the trainer fainted on top of Yeisley while he was stitching his lip, Gorman joked that the trainer has begun psychological treatment.