UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (Sept. 5, 2004) - Sophomore Simon Omekanda (Rochester Hills, Mich.) and senior Pasi Karppinen (Kuopio, Finland) both scored as the Penn State men's soccer team tied No. 8 Wake Forest 2-2 Sunday at the Ohio State Classic.

The Nittany Lions also tied No. 6 North Carolina 1-1 Friday night to come out 0-0-2 against a pair of Top 10 ranked programs, and Atlantic Coast Conference powers, over the weekend.

Penn State will be back in action next weekend at the University of Maryland Tournament. The Nittany Lions will battle Georgetown 5 p.m. Friday and another top ranked program, No. 2 St. John's, 12 p.m. Sunday.

"We'll take the results, but I'm disappointed that two possible victories got away from us," said Penn State head coach Barry Gorman. "But Wake Forest could probably say the same thing about the game today. Both teams hit the post a couple of times and Conrad Taylor (Colorado Springs, Colo.) saved a penalty kick. There was a lot of stuff back and forth. These are two results that got away from us, but we'll take the tie."

Wake Forest (1-0-1) took a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute when Scott Sealy beat freshman goalkeeper Taylor low to the left side from 16 yards out.

But Penn State came storming back with two straight goals to take a 2-1 lead.

Omekanda tied it at 1-1 at 28:15 on a penalty kick. He was taken down in the box and was awarded the penalty kick.

Karppinen scored from 20 yards out off a direct kick at 55:57. Junior Brian Devlin recorded an assist on Karppinen's goal when he touched to Karppinen, who drilled it home.

But after Karppinen's goal, Penn State lost sophomore Jeff Chambers (Christiana, Pa.), who was forced to leave the game after receiving his second yellow card.

Wake Forest later lost Wells Thompson at the 78:11 mark and then Ryan Solle at 88:40 when they received red cards.

"It wasn't a dirty game by any means," Gorman said. "But it was another game that we let slip away. We've got to get our shooting boots on."

The Demon Deacons finally tied it at 2-2 at 83:38 when Justin Moose scored from seven yards out.

The Nittany Lions dominated much of the two overtime periods. They outshot Wake Forest 7-1. Penn State led the advantage in shots for the game as well with 17 to the Demon Deacons' 16.

For more information on Penn State men's soccer, please visit Penn State's official athletic website at www.GoPSUsports.com.