Mo Mohamed

PORTLAND, Maine, May 31, 2025 – Portland Hearts of Pine, playing in front of their third consecutive sellout crowd, hadn’t scored more than two goals in a match since a 4-0 season-opening win against C.D. Faialense in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on March 20. But on Saturday night, they put their feet on the accelerator right from kickoff and never let off, stunning Detroit City FC 4-2 in the USL Jägermeister Cup.

Azaad Liadi, Ollie Wright, Walter Varela, and Mo Mohamed all scored for Portland, who showed a ruthless edge against Detroit while helping lift Hearts into third place in the Jägermeister Cup’s Group D.

Liadi opened the scoring in the fifth minute, getting on the end of a Natty James through ball and lashing it past Detroit goalkeeper Carlos Saldaña. In the 28th minute James once again turned provider, feeding Wright in stride in the left front corner of the penalty area. Wright opted for precision over power, and rolled his shot beyond Saldaña’s outstretched diving arm.

Detroit boasted 66 percent possession and a 13-7 edge in shots in the first half, but were turned away time and time again by Kash Oladapo, who was making just his second start for Portland. The rookie from Oregon made six saves in the first 45 minutes, proving to be an impenetrable force in Hearts’ “Brick Wall” goalkeeper kit.

Detroit finally turned pressure into a goal seven minutes into the second half though, when Jay Chapman controlled a cross and put it into Sebastián Guenzati’s path for the halftime substitute to rocket a shot past Oladapo and into the back of the net.

With 15 minutes left on the clock the match was finely poised with Portland leading 2-1, but an orderly match descended into chaos over the final quarter hour.

In the 78th minute, Walter Varela restored Hearts’ two-goal advantage off a JayTee Kamara assist. Three minutes later, Darren Smith deflected a ball past Oladapo with his knee to cut the lead back to one, at 3-2.

Then, in the 85th minute, head coach Bobby Murphy was shown a yellow card on the Portland sideline. As the boos rained down upon the officials, Kamara found himself one-on-one with a Detroit defender in the penalty area. The winger laid the ball off to Mo Mohamed, who had only joined the team on a 25-day contract two weeks prior; Mohamed turned Kamara’s pass goalward, and just like that Portland led 4-2.

Detroit kept possession even more effectively in the second half than they had in the first, holding the ball for 71 percent of the time. But such was Portland’s defensive resilience that Detroit, desperate to find two goals to send the match to penalty kicks, was not even able to muster a single shot in the 10 minutes of regular time and stoppage time that followed.

Oladapo, who made seven saves total on the night en route to receiving the Player of the Match award from the Dirigo Union, was not tested once in the match’s waning moments, and Hearts held strong for what is already the club’s second win over a Championship side in its brief history.

Kash had this to say about the match tonight: We really, really respect our opponents. We know that they have some quality players over there, and so whenever you’re able to get a stop, you just kind of got to reflect. I mean, if I have to make a save, maybe something broke down. So I can’t always celebrate too much, but everyone in the back line put in shifts.

GOALS

Azaad Liadi (POR 5’; assist Natty James); Ollie Wright (POR 28’; assist Natty James), Sebastián Guenzati (DET 52’; assist Jay Chapman), Walter Varela (POR 78’; assist JayTee Kamara), Darren Smith (DET 81’; assist Matt Sheldon), Mo Mohamed (POR 85’; assist JayTee Kamara)

DISCIPLINE

YC Kash Oladapo (POR ‘45+1), Jay Chapman (DET 72’), Portland bench (85’)

RC NONE

LINEUPS

PORTLAND HEARTS OF PINE – Kash Oladapo, Nathan Messer, Samuel Mahlamäki Camacho, Kemali Green (Sean Vinberg 46’), Colby Quiñones (Mo Mohamed 46’), Mikey Lopez ©, Michel Poon-Angeron, Natty James (Masashi Wada 59’), JayTee Kamara, Ollie Wright (Walter Varela 76’), Azaad Liadi (Titus Washington 82’)

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – Hunter Morse, Mickey Reilly 

DETROIT CITY FC – Carlos Saldaña, Alex Villanueva, Stephen Carroll ©, Devon Amoo-Mensah, Jay Chapman (Jordan Adebayo-Smith 79’), Dominic Gasso, Haruki Yamazako (Matt Sheldon 68’), Jeciel Cedeño (Ben Morris, 46’), Ates Diouf (Shane Wiedt 46’), Connor Rutz (Sebastián Guenzati 46’), Darren Smith

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – Carlos Herrera, Marcello Polisi