PORTLAND, Maine – Let’s start with the good news first, because the good news was great.
The Portland Hearts of Pine defeated AV Alta FC 1-0 Sunday night at Fitzpatrick Stadium. The match, which was won in the 93rd minute on a brilliant header by center back Serigne Faye off of a corner kick, may have been the most complete effort by Portland this season.
The Hearts played stifling defense, limiting Alta’s ability to control the ball by holding the opponent from California to 49 percent possession, when normally Alta controls nearly 60 percent of the ball. Portland also contained Alta to a single (albeit very dangerous) shot early in the first half.
Portland (7-11-8) emerged from the game with the full three points, brimming with a confidence that has wavered off and on throughout the Hearts’ second season of existence. The win was Portland’s second straight, matching the club’s longest streak of the 2026 campaign.
“I am so happy for the team, and for the fans too,” Faye said after the game. “This win is for us, this win is for the city.”
Now for the less good news. Fort Wayne FC (10-8-6) won its match Saturday, retaining its seven-point lead over Portland as it strives to hold off the Hearts for USL League One’s final playoff position. Fort Wayne has also played two fewer games, meaning it has two additional opportunities to increase its season points total than Portland (which has a total of six league games remaining).
Portland hosted Fort Wayne on Aug. 29 and fell 4-1 in what was a match much closer than the score as the teams played evenly between each other’s 18-yard boxes, but Fort Wayne dominated in both. The teams don’t play again in the regular season.
But if Portland comes up just short of chasing down Fort Wayne, it’s the opponent that the Hearts played during the following week of that loss that might keep players, management, and fans wondering what could have been. That result, a 3-2 road loss to first-place Charlotte in which the Independence scored twice in the final three minutes of extra time to steal the win, may well end up being the dagger in Portland’s season.
For now though, Portland can take heart in knowing it has strung strong efforts together in a critical part of the schedule.
What we saw:
A return of the press! For weeks, if not longer, the Hearts have struggled to press the opponent’s back line and even midfield in the ways that Portland sometimes had done early in the season but particularly last year when making a deep run in the playoffs.
Coach Bobby Murphy talked after the game about how he has been urging his goal scorers to do more. Watching the game, Murphy said “it felt like us from the start,” because the team was smothering Alta’s defenders, making life tough for them to move the ball out of their own end.
“I was hard on him a few weeks ago but Diego Gonzalez, for all he can do with the ball, he’s got to help us against the ball,” Murphy said. “His willingness to sprint, get after people, get in people’s faces, put center backs under pressure causes pressure.”
Murphy went on to also praise forward Aboubacar Camara for his pressing, while also citing midfielders Diego Letayf Escutia and Michel Poon-Angeron for repeatedly closing down Alta’s attack.
“We kept pushing the game and had a few chances,” Murphy said. “Probably didn’t create enough, but a goal off a set piece? We will take it.”
Letayf Escutia seems to have helped solidify the middle since his arrival in mid-August from Vermont Green FC after a successful college career at Georgetown University, where the Hoyas won two Big East titles and appeared in the college playoffs all four of his years.
Murphy has been emphasizing the press, Letayf Escutia said, highlighting the importance of stepping forward, enveloping the defense and keeping the ball in the opponents’ half. Working with Poon-Angeron over the past several matches has been a smooth experience, he added.
“He’s such a calming presence in there,” Murphy said of his midfield mate. “Definitely leads by example. It’s been really easy to play alongside him.”
Backtracking is back in! Throughout the game, Hearts’ midfielders who have more of an offensive focus, such as Jay Tee Kamara and Matteo Kidd, have tracked back as the Hearts shift from offense to defense, and taken the ball away from opponents.
That’s been more normal this season for a player like Kidd, but for someone like Kamara, that’s something newer.
“It will go under the radar but how many balls (Kamara) dug out in the first half sprinting back and getting a foot in, which is not his thing,” Murphy said. “After the game, he said, ‘I cramped because I ran so much.’ I’m like, ‘You’re supposed to run that much. That’s part of what we do.’”
Kamara laughed, Murphy said, and while acknowledging that people will focus on goals and assists for a player like Kamara, watching him play such urgent defense “was fantastic.”
Even still, Kamara served as Portland’s most dangerous offensive player, repeatedly leaving Alta’s defenders kicking at air as the diminutive midfielder broke ankles and hearts time and again. Oftentimes, it seemed like the offense excelled best when the ball was moved from left to Kamara’s right side, enabling him to attack well enough that Murphy said he was “unlucky” not to score himself.
Faye’s goal deserves its own section, but first the scene must be set. In the first half, Portland and Alta took turns having moments of success. Alta nearly scored early on when Christian Ortiz fancily cut through Portland’s defense and went one-on-one with Hearts’ goalkeeper Hunter Morse until Morse stood tall and made a kick save. The Hearts performed well too for stretches but struggled to get much direct pressure on the goal.
In the 41st minute, Alta’s most dangerous offensive player, forward Jerry Desdunes, ended up tangled with players, prompting him to be issued a yellow card. He also ended up injured and had to be subbed off. Without their leading scorer (Desdunes had 8 goals and 7 assists coming into the game), Alta struggled to string together many passes for the rest of the match.
Still, despite pushing again and again, it appeared Portland was heading toward a draw. For a team that was as hungry for points in the standings as the Hearts seemed to feel, that apparently proved too much to take.
Gonzalez lined up the corner kick and launched it into the heart of the box. A mass of players leaped, but Faye rose above them all.
With a decisive flick of his head, Faye pounded the ball violently into the turf toward the right of Alta’s goalkeeper and with one bounce, it was in the net.
“I want to do it every game,” Faye said while – with a smile – lamenting other chances he has missed in previous games.
It was the second headed goal off a corner kick for the Hearts in 2026, which doubled how many times Portland scored using that method in 2025.This last note has nothing to do with the game, but it’s an important one nonetheless. During the press conference afterward, the regular members of the media were joined by Cole Rubins, 9, of East Deering. Rubins was chosen through a competition held by The Telling Room. As the winner, Rubins got to ask questions of the players, too.
Clearly, Murphy was a fan of the youth, praising him for his questions and then fist bumping/shaking hands at the end. Rubins said he was unsure if he would be a reporter one day, and while writing wasn’t his favorite, reading books certainly was.
Keep reading, Cole. You’ll find writing becomes easier and more enjoyable. The world needs all the reporters we can get these days, so just keep it in mind. Your questions were great, just as Coach Murphy told you.
Cole Rubins, 9, of East Deering, poses for a photo before the Hearts’ media session. With him are his mother, Abby Huckel, left, and Kristina Powell, the executive director of The Telling Room.
