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Twelve goals.

The way coach Bobby Murphy sees it, 12 goals was the difference between the Portland Hearts of Pine’s seventh-place finish in the club’s inaugural USL League One season and finishing in the top three.

“You can either score 12 more goals or let in 12 fewer, or a combination of that. So we’ve really focused on tightening up the back,” said Murphy, who is also the team’s sporting director, meaning he’s the person in charge of building the roster.

The new defense gets its first real test at 2 p.m. Saturday when the Hearts of Pine open their second USL1 season on the road against expansion club New York Cosmos in Paterson, New Jersey.

Portland was 11-7-12 in the 2025 regular season. That’s 12 draws. Twelve games where one goal scored or one less given up would have meant an additional two points in the standings. Just three additional points would have given Portland a home game in the quarterfinals as a top-four seed.

After scoring eight goals in their first eight league matches while going 1-2-5, the Hearts heated up and finished with 51 goals in 30 regular-season games, tied for second among the 14 teams in the league. (USL1 has 17 teams this season).

Portland allowed 40 goals, sixth fewest in the league. The five teams that allowed less goals were the top five teams in the standings, led by eventual champion One Knoxville, which gave up 27 goals and posted a league-leading 14 shutouts.

“I think we conceded too many soft goals last year,” Murphy said. “For as many goals as we scored, we shouldn’t have tied as many games as we did.”

So, there are six new faces among the nine-member backfield in front of starting goalkeeper Hunter Morse. That Morse led the league in saves — by a wide margin, with 96 stops — is another indicator that the Portland defense was too porous.

Morse had to be exceptional for the Hearts to upset No. 2 Chattanooga in last season’s quarterfinal round. In the semifinals at Spokane, Portland was unable to hold an overtime lead and lost in penalty kicks.

Brecc Evans, a 6-foot-4 USL1 veteran center back, headlined the offseason acquisitions. Evans was a second-team USL1 selection last season while playing for FC Naples. Also expected to see significant time early in the season are center back Serigne Mbacke Faye, a native of Senegal who played most recently in Bulgaria, and left back Zion Scarlett, who has a sturdy 6-foot-2 frame and the speed and desire to push into the attacking zone. Faye missed the Hearts’ preseason training in Bermuda and the Carolinas. His first training session with the team was Tuesday.

The other three new defenders are outside backs Adam Armour and Ernest Mensah Jr., and center back Esteban Espinoza.

The only returners who were playing at the end of the 2025 season are center back Kemali Green and right back Mo Mohamed. Green was a consistent fixture in the starting lineup as a rookie. He figures to start alongside Evans.

“It’s a new group, a new backline this year, so we still have a lot of work to do,” Green said. “We just have to help each other and take everything that everyone is good at and put it to good use.”

Mohamed was signed to a 25-day contract in May and then earned a full-season extension. Also returning is Jaden Jones-Riley, who was the Hearts’ original starter at right back before tearing his ACL early in the season.

“Having Jaden back, having Mo back for a full preseason will help tremendously,” Murphy said.

Left back will be a position of interest. Nathan Messer led the Hearts in minutes last season, scored six goals with four assists, and earned himself a promotion to Charleston Battery in the USL Championship after his all-USL1 campaign.

Fifth-year pro Scarlett, who is only 21, is the likely successor.

“I’m just very direct and I just love to run,” Scarlett said. “I like to run behind, pick up the ball, drive with the ball, just to add almost another attacker to the back line.”