Portland Hearts of Pine coach Bobby Murphy and defender Nathan Messer are in the running for major USL League One awards.

Murphy is a finalist for Coach of the Year, along with Ian Fuller of One Knoxville, Scott Mackenzie of Chattanooga and Matt Poland of FC Naples. Messer is a finalist for Defender of the Year. He’s up against David Garcia of the Spokane Velocity and Jordan Skelton of One Knoxville.

Murphy led the Hearts of Pine to a playoff berth in their first season. Portland went 11-7-12 in the regular season to earn the seventh seen, then upset Mackenzie’s Chattanooga side in the quarterfinals.

Messer, who was named to the All-League first team on Thursday, excelled at left back for Portland and contributeds to the offense with six goals and four assists.

Also named to the first team was Masashi Wade. Portland’s Ollie Wright was a second-team selection.

Only regular-season champion One Knoxville had more selections (four) than Portland. the Spokane Velocity and FC Naples each had three picks. Those four teams are the remaining clubs in the playoff.

No. 7 Portland (12-7-12) is at No. 3 Spokane (15-7-9) at 9 p.m. Sunday. One Knoxville (17-5-9) hosts No. 4 FC Naples (14-9-8) at 7 p.m. Saturday. The championship game will be at the highest remaining seed the weekend of Nov. 14-16.

Wada, a midfielder, has scored nine goals. Wright, who plays on the left wing, often working in tandem with Messer, led Portland with nine goals and eight assists in the 30-game regular season. All three of Portland’s all-star selections were first-year players in USL1.