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PORTLAND — It was the formula the Portland Hearts of Pine wanted. They attacked, owned the run of play, got chances and buzzed around the AV Alta FC net.

But they didn’t score.

Jerry Desdunes and Walmer Martinez had goals for AV Alta, which defeated Portland 2-0, making it a frustrating Wednesday night for the Hearts and the announced crowd of 5,735 at Fitzpatrick Stadium.

“We have to become nasty. We have to become more ruthless, more determined to not do dumb stuff,” coach Bobby Murphy said. “I thought we started well, had a couple of chances early. Even at 1-0 I thought we were OK, but we can’t get on the end of stuff, we miss an open net. Part of me, I don’t know what you do with that.”

Portland (2-6-3) outshot AV Alta 14-8 but missed a chance to take down the third-place team in USL League One and gain valuable ground in the standings. The Hearts are in a stretch of seven matches in four weeks that began June 27 with a 4-1 loss to Rhode Island FC.

“It’s so hard to swallow and it’s going to be difficult for us to forget about this loss,” midfielder JayTee Kamara said. “Today was not our day. We have to keep going and think about Sunday’s game (against South Georgia Tormenta FC).”

Seven of the first nine tries on net belonged to the Hearts. In a window between the 22nd and 28th minutes, Masashi Wada and Ollie Wright had a pair of looks before the ball was deflected out. Wright had a free kick from 22 yards that sailed just high, and Kamara fired a shot from the middle of the box that AV Alta (6-4-3) keeper Carlos Avilez (six saves) steered aside.

The breakthrough, however, belonged to the visitors from Lancaster, California. In the 39th minute, Desdunes played the ball back to Harrison Robledo, who immediately sent it back to him. Desdunes provided the finishing touch the Hearts had been missing, ripping a shot from the back right corner of the penalty area that found the net 38:10 into the match.

“Goals change games,” Murphy said. “I would like at some point for us to get the type of goal that we give to other people.”

Portland had an excellent chance for that kind of goal when Kamara was brought down in the penalty arc for a free kick in the 50th minute. His shot sailed through the defense but was saved by a diving Avilez, and Nathan Messer’s attempt to head the ball into the open net floated just over the crossbar.

“Yes, it feels (tough) but after that ball, I think that was the time everyone was like, ‘It’s done, it’s over,'” Kamara said. “We don’t have to keep our head down, we have to keep our head up.”

Portland kept up the pressure, with Titus Washington playing the ball up to Wright, who went in alone down the left side, but his shot from up close was stopped by Avilez in the 53rd minute.

Again, near misses and squandered chances loomed large as Martinez took a pass from Desdunes and fired a perfect curling shot from 25 yards that beat a diving Hunter Morse just inside the left post in the 77th minute, making it 2-0 and crippling the comeback hopes.

“The amount of chances we miss, it’s almost like the margin of error is so slim for us that we can’t make a mistake, because we can’t get on the end of anything, we can’t take chances,” Murphy said. “It makes the game really hard.”

Asked if the scoring woes could be explained as bad luck, Murphy had a ready answer.

“Dick Hall … (who) played for the Dallas Tornado, coached me when I was a kid. He had an old saying. ‘You make your own luck,'” he said. “So we say unlucky, but that’s sort of like a cop-out. You make your own luck.”

Murphy said the Hearts didn’t do enough of that Wednesday night.

“This is becoming a common sort of theme here, it’s either feast or famine. We either score four or none,” he said. “With the amount of chances we generate, it shouldn’t be a shutout.”