{"id":401966,"date":"2026-08-09T17:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401966\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T17:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:48:32","slug":"hearts-of-pine-fall-to-corpus-christi-fc-in-pivotal-usl1-showdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/401966\/","title":{"rendered":"Hearts of Pine fall to Corpus Christi FC in pivotal USL1 showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND \u2014 It was a battle between two teams desperate for points \u2014 and it did not go the way of the Portland Hearts of Pine.<\/p>\n

The Hearts of Pine suffered a 2-0 defeat to Corpus Christi FC in USL League One showdown Saturday night at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Portland is seven points out of the eighth and final playoff spot, and lost ground to Corpus Christi.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re definitely up against it,\u201d said Hearts coach Bobby Murphy. \u201cThis was a big night for us, and I thought we were prepared and had a good week of training. We\u2019ve just got to find a way to translate that stuff onto the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corpus Christi, which got a 20th-minute goal from Blake Bowen and an 84th-minute tally from Jack Keaney, remains in 10th place after the win. Portland (21 points), which has earned just one point in four games, fell five points back of their Texas counterparts.<\/p>\n

Corpus Christi looked the stronger of the two sides early and nearly took the lead in the eighth minute but was denied thanks to a brilliant save by Hearts keeper Hunter Morse. In the 20th minute, the pressure paid off as Bowen scored from close range.<\/p>\n

The Hearts of Pine responded, going on the front foot for the rest of the first half and into the second. Portland, however, could not find a goal, and with time winding down, Keaney connected on a header from a corner kick and sent it from the right side of the box to the top-left corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you give up the goal early like we did out of really nothing, it changes things,\u201d Murphy said. \u201cWe had a few chances in the second half, and I thought we had enough to get back in it, but that\u2019s the way things are going right now for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matteo Kidd made a number of strong runs into the box to generate chances for the Hearts of Pine. Yet the midfielder was left to rue a pair of misses, a powerful header in the 68th minute that went just wide of goal and an opportunity in the 76th that Corpus Christi keeper James Talbot saved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we were up for it \u2014 we were up for it all week \u2014 and it came down to moments again, and I missed two big moments to change the game,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cThat\u2019s on me; I should have scored a goal both times. \u2026 It\u2019s a tough feeling today after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the second home game this week for the Hearts, who played Connecticut United to a 1-1 draw in a friendly Wednesday<\/a>. The team played before a capacity crowd of 6,289 fans Saturday, the club\u2019s 32nd consecutive sellout.<\/p>\n

Captain Mikey Lopez said the Hearts of Pine owe it to that crowd to get back on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll we can do is start with one game and one win,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cIn my year and a half, I\u2019ve noticed that this city is not one to lay back down when things get difficult; Portland is a city that gets back up and starts fighting. I know that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That starts with a showdown against Forward Madison on Aug. 16 at Fitzpatrick Stadium. Kidd said that a battle with fourth-place Madison (35 points), which has won five straight, might be what the Hearts need as the season nears the stretch run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good opportunity for us to get some confidence back, beat a really good team and get some confidence back for the rest of the year,\u201d Kidd said. \u201cMadison is a really good team, but they\u2019ve got to come to Fort Fitzy, and hopefully we can turn this into our house again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PORTLAND \u2014 It was a battle between two teams desperate for points \u2014 and it did not go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-401966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}