Ten-Man Hearts of Pine Stun Hartford Athletic 4-2 on Penalties, Advance in Open Cup

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USL1 Portland Hearts of Pine

Ten-Man Hearts of Pine Stun Hartford Athletic 4-2 on Penalties, Advance in Open Cup

April 3, 2025 - United Soccer League One (USL1)
Portland Hearts of Pine News Release


Lewiston, ME - In the end, 90 minutes weren't enough to separate Portland Hearts of Pine from USL Championship opponent Hartford Athletic in the second round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. One-hundred-and-twenty minutes weren't enough, either.

In the end, as snowflakes began to fall from the heavens above Lewiston High School, it took a Jake Keegan miracle, Hunter Morse's left hand, and a perfectly placed Evan Southern kick from the spot to separate the sides, as a short-handed Hearts stunned Hartford to win 4-2 on penalties and advance to the third round.

Portland was strong from the opening whistle, and almost took the lead in the 10th minute with an end-to-end counter that would've been worthy of a place on SportsCenter's Plays of the Week. Titus Washington broke free down the left sideline on a counterattack, drew a defender in, then passed the ball wide to Ollie Wright. Wright played the ball back to Washington cutting inside, and the forward crossed into the penalty area. Azaad Liadi came down on the end of the cross and turned his shot goalward, but Hartford goalkeeper Gerold Ngnepi collected the ball and kept Hearts off the scoresheet.

Eighteen minutes later Portland came close again with an attack that, again, started down the left flank. This time, Nathan Messer spun and left two Hartford defenders standing still, then rifled a cross into the penalty area. Liadi got his head to the ball, but his header lofted over the bar.

Wright and Liadi put Ngnepi to work again in the 63rd minute with a pair of shots from close range that forced saves, but Hartford's goalkeeper was able to keep the ball out of the back of the net with a pair of desperate blocks.

The match almost turned in Hartford's favor early in extra time when Liadi collected his second yellow card of the match and was sent marching back to the locker room early. Athletic thought they'd broken the deadlock at the end of the first period when Michee Ngalina found the back of the net, but as the team celebrated on the pitch, the assistant referee raised his flag to indicate Ngalina had strayed offside.

Hartford finally scored in the 107th minute when defender Jordan Scarlett put the ball past Hunter Morse, and as the match ticked closer to full time, with snowflakes beginning to fall from the sky, the crowd of 3,002 collectively crept towards the edges of their seats, praying for a Hearts miracle.

A pair of substitutes turned out to be the difference in the 117th minute, when Southern, on for Walter Varela, forced a turnover and launched a pass downfield to Keegan, in the game for Sean Vinberg.

Keegan squared Ngnepi up and chipped the ball over him.

One bounce.

Back of the net.

1-1.

Pandemonium.

The crowd erupted, and three minutes later the once-again-deadlocked teams found themselves facing a penalty shootout.

Joseph Farrell scored first for Hartford, only for Portland captain Patrick Langlois to match him and level the score. Dieng Mamadou then went high and to the right for Hartford to make it 2-1, but Keegan matched his placement and tied the score up at 2-2.

Morse stood tall on Athletic's third attempt, and thrust out his left hand to deny Sebastian Anderson's low shot that was heading towards the corner of the goal. Up stepped Nathan Messer for Portland, and the fullback drilled the ball right down the middle to give Hearts the narrowest of advantages at 3-2.

Ngalina, Hartford's second-leading scorer in 2024, was next up from the spot, but the normally lethal finisher froze and sent his chip shot over the bar.

Evan Southern, minutes removed from setting Keegan up to send the match to penalties, then strode to the penalty area and blasted the ball past Ngnepi to send Hearts of Pine through to the third round.

I'm so proud of that, said Coach Bobby Murphy. They kept going. I thought for long stretches we were on top of the game. We created more chances and were probably unlucky not to score once or twice.

When I took this job we had discussions about what it was going to look like, we wanted to reflect the community we play in. Maine is notorious for hard working people who value what they have. A big part of the recruitment process was finding people with that sort of character who bought into the larger project. We hope we reflect the people in this community.

The draw for the third round will take place at 1:00 p.m. ET tomorrow, April 3, and will be broadcast live on CBS Golazo Network, which can be viewed for free via the CBS Sports App and Pluto TV.

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