The Portland Hearts of Pine are expecting a much tougher test when they return to Lewiston High on Wednesday. Maine’s first professional men’s soccer team started its inaugural season in grand fashion on March 20 in Lewiston when it dominated amateur squad CD Faialense of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 4-0, in the first round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in front of approximately 3,200 adoring fans. That win sent the Hearts of USL League One to the second round of the 110th edition of the in-season tournament that has teams across all three tiers of professional soccer, as well as 32 top amateur teams. On Wednesday (6:30 p.m.), instead of an amateur squad, Portland will face Hartford Athletic FC of USL Championship — a second-tier league. USL League One is considered the third tier in the U.S. soccer pyramid. Portland played a preseason game at Hartford and won, 4-0, with Hartford fielding its reserve unit. “I expect a very different group for them to put out than when we played them in preseason,” said Hearts coach Bobby Murphy after Tuesday’s practice. “I think they’re obviously dangerous. They’ve got some good pieces, especially in attack.” Hartford advanced with a 3-0 win against the New York Shockers, an amateur team. In USL Championship play, Hartford is 0-3 and has scored one goal while conceding five. “They’re not scoring many goals and it’s going to be up to us to try to not let them get any confidence in the game and not let them get out of the little rut they’re in,” Murphy said. The Hearts of Pine are coming off their first league game, a 0-0 draw at league leader FC Naples in Naples, Florida. Portland’s defense has been an early season bright spot. “It’s not just the back four, not just the goalkeeper, it’s everybody willing to defend,” Murphy said. The coach did point to the strong play of two of his young defenders: rookie center back Kemali Green, a native of Jamaica who played at Temple University; and second-year pro Nathan Messer, who has shined at left back. Including six preseason games, Portland has allowed two goals — both in a fiercely contested 2-2 draw at Rhode Island FC, the 2024 USL Championship runner-up. “For myself, yeah, I’ve been impactful at the defensive end,” said Green, who has paired with Sean Vinberg in the middle of the defense, “but also the group has just bought into what Coach has done since Day One. The guys in front, even from the top, coming all the way to the midfielders, everyone has to put in that work and that makes everything easier. And obviously the guy behind you in net, too.” Hunter Morse has manned the goal in both games so far. Messer said shutting out FC Naples showed that defense “is a point of pride. It’s something we want to be really good at. “On the other side of things it would have been really nice to get a goal, but we’ll work on that, for sure.” NOTES: Colby Quiñones was back with the team in Florida after national team duty with Puerto Rico kept him away for the first Open Cup game. Quiñones started at right back. … Veteran midfielder Mikey Lopez saw his first action, coming on in the 77th minute. It was Lopez’s first game action since the 2023 season with USL Championship side Birmingham Legion. He lost the 2024 season to Achilles surgery and was slowed this season by a knee injury. Lopez entered the game with Jaden Jones-Riley, who spelled Quiñones. Two minutes later, forward Evan Southern entered. Murphy said the substitutes “came on and did really well. It only looked like one team (Portland) was capable of winning in the last 10, 15 minutes.” … Murphy was critical of the hard artificial surface field at Paradise Sports Complex. “I think it can’t be overstated how bad that field was and how hard it was. It was like playing in the ‘80s, the turf was so hard and so bad. And old.” … The combination of the poor playing conditions, being on the road, and playing the league leader made getting a point a good result, Murphy said. “For a first road trip in the league to get a point, yeah, we’ll take it. It’s hard to win on the road in this league. The travel’s not easy.” Steve Craig — 207-791-61413 scraig@pressherald.com