Hearts Battle Knoxville to Draw in Home Opening Downpour

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USL1 Portland Hearts of Pine

Hearts Battle Knoxville to Draw in Home Opening Downpour

May 4, 2025 - United Soccer League One (USL1)
Portland Hearts of Pine News Release


Portland, ME - In front of a raucous sold out Fitzpatrick Stadium crowd of 5,784 screaming, cheering, dancing, singing, flag-waiving Mainers, Masashi Wada made history by scoring the first home league goal in Portland Hearts of Pine (0-1-3) history, cracking the league's toughest defense as Hearts held high-flying One Knoxville SC (3-0-2) to a 1-1 tie on Saturday night.

Green smoke drifted across the Fitzy field before kickoff, and the noise emanating from the Dirigo Union set the stage for a 90-minute party that not even the torrential downpour could dampen.

Just how unflappable were the Hearts fans?

Not even Maine Governor Janet Mills was fazed by the weather, standing amongst the sold out crowd and routinely giving the Knoxville players a piece of her sharp mind.

Portland fell behind early when Stuart Ritchie drove a low shot home from outside the six-yard box in the second minute.

The crowd responded by simply getting louder, turning the metal stands into a cauldron of noise to lift the team. Azaad Liadi almost tied the match in the 16th minute when he headed a Nathan Messer corner goalward; only a diving reflex save by Sean Lewis, the two-time reigning USL League One Goalkeeper of the Year, kept the ball out of the back of the net.

Portland-a team that does not typically look to dominate possession-nevertheless held the ball for 57% of the first half, and took 10 shots to Knoxville's 3. At some point the dam had to burst, and burst it did in dramatic fashion in stoppage time.

A failed Knoxville clearance saw the ball fall at Ollie Wright's feet, and the left winger immediately launched a cross into the penalty area. Liadi rose to meet it again, looking to improve on his earlier effort, but the ball deflected into the path of Wada instead.

The star Japanese midfielder struck out his right leg, and the roar that followed from the stands will echo throughout Fitzy for a long, long time. With Lewis out of position tracking Liadi he had no chance of stopping Wada's perfectly placed shot, and 'Sashi' carved his name into the Hearts record books.

Portland outshot Knoxville again in the second half, 6-4, but could not get the ball past Lewis a second time. Liadi came the closest when, in the 88th minute, he sent a curled shot towards the far post, but his effort arced wide, and the match finished in a 1-1 tie.

QUOTES:

MASASHI WADA

This is so exciting. It's such a big stadium. I'm glad to score the first goal in this stadium. I felt so good. I could have had one more goal in the first half, but it's okay.

We needed to focus at the beginning, but we equalized in the first half. It was a good thing for me, for us. I think we could have won, but we will next time I'm sure.

BOBBY MURPHY

I want this in bold: I just want to send my thanks and gratitude to everyone who turned up. The fans were fantastic, the supporter's group was unbelievable, and you guys showed up and were here and people were here until 1 o'clock this morning putting this thing together. People work so hard to give us a platform to perform.

Sometimes when it's big, I think it's important to acknowledge the truth, because when you don't acknowledge the truth you get found out. The truth was it's a big night, and we were a little nervous and a little edgy. Instead of acknowledging that and moving forward with that energy we came out like, "Oh, we got this," and we got caught cold by the first 5- to 10 minutes. After that I thought the response was fantastic from the players.

It's frustrating not to get the win but again the performance from the players was fantastic. They run their socks off and I couldn't be prouder of them.

On Masashi: It's a big night, and he looked like someone who'd been in a big night before. He took the game by the scruff of the neck and led by example and brought everyone kicking and screaming back into the game with him. I think we're only scratching the surface with him. The more comfortable he gets, the better and better he will get.

GOALS

POR - Masashi Wada 45+2' (Azaad Liadi)

KNOX - Stuart Ritchie 2' (Mark Doyle)

DISCIPLINE

YC - Michel Poon-Angeron (POR 33'), Abel Caputo Melilo (KNOX - HT), Sivert Haugli (KNOX 73'), Babacar Diene (KNOX 86')

RC - NONE

STARTING LINEUPS

Portland Hearts of Pine - Hunter Morse, Nathan Messer, Sean Vinberg, Kemali Green, Pat Langlois ©, Mikey Lopez, Michel Poon-Angeron (Colby Quinones 69'), Ollie Wright (Titus Washington 82'), Masashi Wada, Azaad Liadi, Walter Varela (Jake Keegan 58')

Unused substitutes: Samuel Mahlamaki Camacho, Shandon Wright, Kash Oladapo, Natty James

One Knoxville SC - Sean Lewis, Jordan Skelton ©, Daniel Fernandez Cotobal, Stuart Ritchie, Jaheim Brown, Abel Caputo Melilo, Callum Johnson (Angelo Kelly-Rosales 63'), Mikkel Goling (Nicola Rosamila 63'), Kempes Tekiela (Babacar Diene 63'), Mark Doyle (Sivert Haugli 29'), Stavros Zarokostas

Unused substitutes: Scott Mcleod, Johan Garibay

Check out the Portland Hearts of Pine Statistics

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