The Portland Hearts of Pine Men’s Soccer Club, the inaugural member of the USL League One, captured a thrilling victory over Hartford Athletic in penalty kicks in round two of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup at Lewiston High School on Wednesday night. The Hearts of Pine now advance to the third round of the in-season tournament. In-season tournament matches do not count towards the USL League One regular season, but Portland competes in the Lamar Hunt Cup and the Jeigermeister Cup during the course of the year.
Neither team could find the back of the net in regulation despite several great chances. The game moved to overtime which in tournament play consists of two, 15-minute periods with no golden goal. Hartford struck first early in the second extra session off the foot of Jordan Scarlett in the 107th minute. On the verge of a loss late, Portland found the equalizer with just four minutes to play. Jake Keegan ran onto a ball deep in the Athletic end, and chipped it up and over goalie Antony Siaha who was coming out to play it into the far corner of the net just inside the post in the 116th minute to send it into PKs. In the penalty kick round Pat Langlois, Keegan, and Nathan Messer scored the first three Heart of Pine goals. Hartford was unable to answer as Hunter Morse then made a save on Sebastian Anderson, Michee Ngalina shot one over the net, and Evan Southern put it away by tallying to send Portland to the third round of the Cup with the 4-2 PK decision.
Portland, who is 0-0-1 in the USL League One regular season after a scoreless tie at FC Naples in Florida last weekend, gets back into that regular season play when they visit Spokane Velocity FC in Spokane, Washington at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday.
Cover photo (emblem) is courtesy of the Portland Hearts of Pine
