Spokane plays to scoreless draw against Portland Hearts of Pine

On an otherwise dominant offensive night, the Spokane Velocity played to a scoreless draw against expansion club Portland Hearts of Pine at ONE Spokane Stadium on Saturday.

Spokane (1-1-2) ended the game with 60% possession and 15 shot attempts. The Velocity only managed to get two total on target, while also holding Portland to four shots.

Neither team could generate many shot attempts in the first half, combining for just six. Spokane had four to Portland’s two.

Despite not scoring, the Velocity held the upper hand in the first period. They ended the half with 56% possession and 10 touches in Portland’s penalty box. compared to four for the Hearts of Pine (0-0-2).

Spokane ramped up its offensive aggression in the second period with 11 more shots attempted, but it still didn’t find the back of the net.

The Velocity’s final chance to pull ahead came in the 90th minute in added time. Falling out of bounds on the goal line, Spokane midfielder Nil Vinyals scooped a pass to Anuar Pelaez.

Pelaez leaped in the air. With a defender jumping with him, he headed the ball toward the net. The defender did just enough to intervene, and the ball missed to the outside of the right goalpost.

Pierre Reedy led Spokane in shots attempted with four and Lucky Opara registered three chances created. On the defensive end, David Garcia led the team with seven clearances out of Spokane’s 14 total. Defender Sean Vinberg posted 13 clearances for Portland.

Spokane hosts another expansion team in Texoma FC (0-3-0) on April 13 at ONE Spokane Stadium at 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SWX. It will also be streamed on ESPN+.