Hearts Battle League Leaders to a Draw at Home

PORTLAND, Maine – In front of a record crowd of 5,811, Portland Hearts of Pine (7-4-10) held USL League One leaders Chattanooga Red Wolves SC (12-2-9) to a draw at Fitzpatrick Stadium on Saturday night.

For the second time in as many home matches it was a Hearts center back lighting up the scoreboard, as Kemali Green scored Portland’s lone goal with a header off a beautifully worked set piece in the second half.

The match, pitting the first-place Red Wolves against a Hearts side riding high on the back of three consecutive wins, promised to be a heavyweight clash and delivered from the get-go.

Only, in Sean Vinberg’s case, the match was more of a literal heavyweight clash than he may have preferred.

In the 18th minute, Pedro Hernandez brought Vinberg to the ground with an elbow to the face that left the Portland center back requiring medical treatment on the field for several minutes. Vinberg was subbed off shortly thereafter, replaced by Séga Coulibaly—though Coulibaly then went down with a non-contact leg injury 13 minutes after coming on.

With Shandon Wright not dressing, Hearts were left with Green as their lone healthy center back. But, not for the first time this season, Mikey Lopez proved his worth as the ultimate utility player. The 5-9 defensive midfielder, who started the match at right back, shifted to center back to pair with Green while fullback Mo Mohamed came off the bench to cover at right back.

In the final minute of regulation play in the first half, Lopez took Yanis Lelin down with a shoulder challenge in the penalty area, and referee Carlos Rodriguez pointed to the spot. Omar Hernandez stepped up for Chattanooga, and drilled his penalty past Hunter Morse and into the bottom right corner of the goal.

In the 61st minute Hearts tied it up when Ollie Wright rolled a short corner to Nathan Messer, who launched a cross toward the far post; Green rose above the crowd and headed it home, and with a half hour left on the clock the match was suddenly all square at a goal apiece.

Green’s strike injected energy into the Hearts’ attack, and Portland turned the pressure up on the Red Wolves. Hearts attacked relentlessly, and almost netted a late winner when Masashi Wada picked Evan Southern out in the penalty area, only for Southern to get caught up with the ball between his feet while trying to turn and shoot.

Portland had 66 percent possession in the second half, and had the only big chances of the final 45 minutes. They were ultimately unable to break the deadlock though, and Chattanooga escaped with a share of the spoils.

Coach Bobby Murphy had this to say about the match: “We faced some adversity. I mean, that’s life, not everything goes your way. At halftime we were down, we were rattled, and we just had to muster up the belief that we could go and win this thing. We’re certainly talented enough and I thought we couldn’t ask for a better 45 minutes [in that] second half. I think it’s getting to be that time of year where everything matters, every point matters. They want to stay in first place, we want to be climbing the table. Playoffs are around the corner and we’ve been doing this since the middle of January and it all comes down, for us, to the next three weeks.”

GOALS

POR – Kemali Green (61’, Nathan Messer)

CHA – Omar Hernandez (PK 45’+1)

DISCIPLINE

YC – Pedro Hernandez (CHA 18’), Jordan Ayimbala (CHA 45’+5), Walter Varela (POR 45’+7), Ualefi Dos Reis (CHA 53’), Owen Green (CHA 66’), Yanis Lelin (CHA 87’), Matt Bentley (CHA 90’+4)

RC – NONE

LINEUPS

Portland Hearts of Pine: Hunter Morse, Nathan Messer, Kemali Green, Sean Vinberg (Séga Coulibaly 24’, Mo Mohamed 37’), Mikey Lopez ©, Pat Langlois, Masashi Wada, Jay Tee Kamara, Ollie Wright, Titus Washington, Walter Varela (Evan Southern 63’)

Unused substitutes: Kash Oladapo, Mickey Reilly, Natty James, Noah Kvifte

Chattanooga Red Wolves SC: Jason Smith, Tobi Jnohope, Jordan Ayimbila (Joshua Ramos 71’), Owen Green, Eric Kinzner, Yanis Lelin (Kimball Jackson 90’+5), Ualefi Dos Reis ©, Omar Hernandez (Greyson Mercer 71’), Matthew Acosta (Wynand Wessels 71’), Aaron Lombard (Matt Bentley 79’), Pedro Hernandez (Zahir Vazquez 90’+5)

Unused substitutes: Ricardo Jerez