Rob Forster entered the locker room after Saturday's game with a message for his teammates -- do not forget that game.

The excitement from outplaying No. 5 Johns Hopkins in last week's scrimmage was gone and the high-fives and fist-pumps on the field to celebrate goals had been replaced with the panic of trying to survive in overtime.

Although they did survive the first overtime, a Robert Morris goal early in the second overtime gave the Colonials a 12-11 upset over the visiting Penn State men's lacrosse team.

After the game, Forster said he was too upset by the loss to not say anything, so he made sure all his teammates knew what he was thinking.

"I went in the locker room and I just told everyone, 'Don't forget this feeling, keep it in the back of your head how it feels to lose this game,' " he said. "I knew everyone was just as upset as I was, and I wanted to make sure we don't forget how it felt to lose to that team."

After falling behind 6-1 in the first half, Penn State rallied to score six straight goals and take a 7-6 lead early in the second half. The lead then went back-and-forth twice more in regulation, with Robert Morris going up 9-7 and the Nittany Lions retaking an 11-9 lead with 8:18 left.

"How and why, I don't know," coach Glenn Thiel said about Robert Morris getting out to a fast start, "but they sure did.

"They had a great plan, they executed it very well. We had opportunities and did not shoot well, and they had opportunities and did, and it just snowballed from there."

Despite the loss, Penn State outshot the Colonials 52-35 and won 14 of 22 faceoffs.

Although Forster said Sal Barcia, the Robert Morris goalie, deserved a lot of credit for his play, both Forster and Thiel said Penn State didn't take advantage when they had opportunities.

"We didn't put shots in the cage the way we had in preseason, the scrimmage and the way we had in practices," Thiel said. "We should have won."

With a two-goal lead midway through the final quarter, the team made some "unwise decisions" and should have been more protective of the ball, Thiel said.

Instead, the Lions unsuccessfully tried to push the lead to three and gave the ball back to Robert Morris, leading to the final two goals of regulation to force overtime.

"We took a shot to try and add another goal and the goalie made a really great save," sophomore Chris Hogan said. "We handled the ball pretty well for the most part, but they just made some really great plays that changed the game."

Although Thiel stopped short of

calling Robert Morris an easy opponent, he said the games will get

much harder as the season goes on and said Saturday's game was one

the Lions did not expect to struggle with.

"The opponents are a lot tougher from now on, that's a game we certainly expected to control throughout, he said. "Hopefully we respond a little better to adversity from here on out and I know the guys are real upset, so hopefully they use that as some motivation."

Despite the loss to a team Penn State beat 18-2 last season, Hogan and Forster both said it's better to have a loss like this happen now than later in the season when the team is in mid-season form.

"This loss will always be in the back of our heads," Forster said. "The game this weekend against Notre Dame is huge.

"If we beat them, we're right back on the map and this loss will be forgotten about."