Simon Omekanda stood underneath the visitors' bleachers at Jeffrey Field, looking upset and confused after Wednesday night's 2-1 loss to No. 9 West Virginia.

The senior forward saw chance after chance for the Penn State men's soccer team to score the tying goal, eventually wasted by referee's whistles and bad timing.

Omekanda could not figure what went wrong and what needed to be fixed before Sunday's 2 p.m. game against Ohio State at Jeffrey Field that the Nittany Lions now have their sights on.

With four days in between the games, Omekanda could not think of a remedy in practice to fix the Lions' (3-6-1, 2-0 in Big Ten) poor play this season.

"It's hard to look to practice because it's not like we do anything wrong," Omekanda said. "It's just a thing that you can't teach and it's effort which we didn't do in that second half."

In a game where the Lions were in control in the first half, leading 1-0, the team came off the field at the end of the game giving up two unanswered goals in the loss.

With no answers in sight for Omekanda, he is looking to the coaches to help the Lions get back on track.

"At this point I seriously have no idea what we could do," Omekanda said. "That's why we have coaches. They'll find something."

Penn State men's soccer coach Barry Gorman points to the recent influx of injuries and having to play new players as part of the reason the Lions were mentally out in the second half of Wednesday's game.

He will look to incorporate more players into the lineup with injuries to three offensive starters, Jason Yeisley, Jacobo Vera and Christoph Ascherl.

By having to find new players to work with Omekanda up front, Gorman has had to move a lot of players around just to have a competitive team on the field.

"You have to be careful not to play musical positions," Gorman said. "You have to find somebody who is going to be able to be ready to step in and play."

With defenders David Gray and Andrew Parr having to leave the game because of injuries, Gorman had to play four left backs on defense at the same time.

And with players such as sophomores Michael Janov and Andy Machi seeing added playing time, Gorman is putting in as many players as possible to find the right fit.

Parr will return to the field on Sunday and Gray is questionable.

One player who will be on the field is captain Markku Viitanen, who is finally healthy and contributing for the Lions.

After missing the beginning of the season with an ankle injury, Viitanen scored his first goal of the year on Wednesday.

Standing underneath the same bleachers as Omekanda, Viitanen was upset about the loss, but was happy to be back playing soccer, already looking toward the next game.

"We just have to keep our heads," Viitanen said. "We have played well against Big Ten opponents. We just have to forget [Wednesday's] game. We have to remember what we're here for."