They finished impressively, and now they’re moving up in the USL League One standings.

The Portland Hearts of Pine captured a 4-2 win Saturday against the fifth-place Charlotte Independence in front of 5,710 fans at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

Portland jumped three spots in the standings with a second straight win and is now in seventh place – the highest Maine’s first-year professional men’s soccer team has been in its inaugural season. Eight teams make the playoffs, and Portland still has played the fewest games in the league.

“The games in hand mean nothing unless you capitalize on them, so I think three points for us tonight is huge,” said Ollie Wright, the English midfielder who notched a goal and two assists. “Seventh, so we’re across the line now. Now, it’s just about staying above that line, keeping our heads afloat and staying humble.”

Portland scored three goals in an 18-minute stretch in the second half to break a 1-1 tie. Charlotte got one back in the final minute of extra time.

“Those three goals are what we want to do,” said Hearts of Pine coach Bobby Murphy. “You get after people, you play forward, you’re brave, and you put people on their back foot.”

Portland improved to 6-4-9 in USL1 (11-7-9 overall). With 27 points, Portland leap-frogged Texoma FC (25 points) and also moved ahead of Union Omaha and the Greenville Triumph, who started the night in eighth and ninth with 24 points but ahead of Portland on tiebreakers.

Portland returns to action Wednesday at Greenville (S.C.), the club’s 20th of 30 league games. The Hearts will try to win three straight for the first time in franchise history. Portland beat Greenville, 3-1, at Fitzpatrick Stadium on July 16.

“We won tonight and it was a great performance, but focus on Wednesday now and try to put some results together. Two wins back-to-back and try to make it three on Wednesday,” Wright said.

Charlotte, 1-3-2 in its last six matches, remains in fifth place with an 8-7-7 record.

Sean Vinberg, normally a center back, put Portland ahead 2-1 in the 69th minute, assisted by JayTee Kamara.

Vinberg was pressed into duty at right back because of an injury to Colby Quinones and because Mo Mohamed was in Milwaukee to attend his sister’s wedding. Vinberg showed he still knows how to score, as he did in 2024 when he tallied eight goals as a midfielder with a German squad.

“On this goal, JayTee sucked the defenders in, the space was in behind, I filled it, and that was it,” Vinberg said, adding his goal-scoring ability “is still in there. As a center back, you have to keep it caged in.”

Kamara, a 5-foot-2 forward, provided a huge spark off the bench with his on-ball wizardry after entering in the 63rd minute with the game tied.

“First and foremost, let me say all thanks to God. A good win for the team, a good win for the fans as well,” Kamara said. “Before the game, I said, I don’t care when Bobby (Murphy) brings me in, I’m going to try to score, try to help the team to win. But I didn’t think I’d give an assist right away.”

After setting up Vinberg’s go-ahead goal, Kamara notched a goal of his own in the 78th minute with an assist from Wright, who also assisted on Masashi Wada’s 28th-minute goal that gave Portland a 1-0 lead.

Wright finished off the Hearts’ scoring in the 87th minute, running onto a well-timed header into space by Evan Southern and blasting a shot past Charlotte keeper Max Levy (four saves). Wright now leads Portland in both goals and assists, with seven of each.

Charlotte got a goal in the final minute of extra time from Juan David Moreno.

Portland was also without striker Titus Washington (six goals), who has emerged after an injury to Azaad Liadi. Noah Kvifte, a Norwegian free agent who signed in midseason, earned the start at striker.

“Titus has a little strain, and if this was the last game of the year, we probably would have risked him, but we have too much coming up and we trust the guys,” Murphy said.

Wada struck first in the 28th minute, finishing a four-person end-to-end sequence that started when Hearts keeper Hunter Morse (two saves) came out to field a bouncing pass. Morse quickly rolled the ball to Mikey Lopez, who took a look and dropped in a long pass that Wright controlled before dribbling into the box, where he fed Wada.

Charlotte’s tying goal came on a penalty shot by Nick Spielman after Portland’s Kemali Green was called for a hand ball while defending Charlotte’s fifth corner kick of the half. Replays showed Green’s hand was positioned near his right hip.