The game ended in familiar enough fashion: Jason Yeisley scores a golden goal, the Penn State men's soccer team wins dramatically, the team rushes the field.

It's been a trend for this season for either Yeisley, the freshman forward, or junior forward Simon Omekanda to have a decisive impact on a game's outcome.

However, for all but 30 seconds of the Lions' 3-2 overtime win vs. Michigan yesterday, they had to find a different way.

The Wolverines are not a defensive juggernaut, coming into yesterday's game with the second highest goals-allowed-per-game average in the Big Ten. But they are a team with a few physical defensive juggernauts -- defenders Chris Glinski and Michael Holody are both over six feet tall and weigh almost 200 pounds.

They were able to keep the size and strength of Yeisley and Omekanda in check, marking them tightly -- on Yeisley's game-ending goal, the Michigan defender was still right on him.

"I definitely think they were waiting for us," Yeisley said.

"They've seen what we've done before. It's no secret."

Just what they've done before seems to be harping on the obvious: The two are the offensive centerpieces, accounting for 31 of the team's 54 points. Neither of them would have had a shot on goal if Yeisley didn't use his head to put one home.

Omekanda was not often seen pushing the attack up the sideline, waiting to cross for Yeisley -- as he normally does. Instead, he didn't get a chance to cause headaches for Wolverine defenders who blocked, poked or bullied potential chances away. One-on-ones ended in step-for-step defensive play from Michigan.

Part of the reason for this, however, was on Lions' end. Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman said his team was sitting too far back on defense, which didn't create advantageous opportunities for its forwards.

"We weren't giving our forwards quality possessions," Gorman said. "And then we weren't supporting them fast enough and well enough."

Instead, they'd have to hit a long shot or try to control an airborne pass and make something out of it. Being outnumbered on the attack, as they often were in this game, is not unusual for the Lions. It's the style of many Big Ten teams to pack in their defenses and clear balls out of the zone.

In this game, however, Penn State did not find its typical way around that.

"It's tough for them to bring the ball down and try to put it in a small target," Gorman said.

"You have to get quality service to your forwards."

Even though the Lions didn't do this particularly well, they still won and found a way to raise the Wolverines' goals-against average.

Whereas the Michigan defense was effective against Penn State forwards, it had trouble with groups.

Both of the Lions' regulation goals came with traffic in front of the Wolverines net -- the first on a rebound, the second on a free kick into a mass of bodies.

The Lions also altered their corner kick approach. Instead of blasting the ball in front of the goal, they opted for short passes to open up the Michigan defense and free a forward.

"When you mix it up, you're causing them all kinds of problems, hopefully," Gorman said of the alterations. "Teams will get scouting reports, and they'll know what our set pieces are."

Yeisley's goal shows that what's a trend for 90 minutes can be a wispy memory in 30 seconds. It shows that, as Omekanda said, even if Michigan was marking him and Yeisley tightly all game, "all it takes is one chance to get it done."

But the Lions wouldn't have even been in the position to win the game in overtime had they not altered its game strategy and used the entire team to find a way past a Michigan defense that zeroed in on and neutralized Yeisley and Omekanda.

"I mean, it's not just gonna be me and Jason," Omekanda said. "It's gotta be 11 guys."