The Portland Thorns and North Carolina Courage have battled in some hard-fought and evenly-matched games over the last two years.

But Portland was simply outplayed by North Carolina Wednesday.

The Thorns (4-4-3, 15 points) fell 4-1 in a disappointing home loss to the Courage (9-0-2, 29 points) in front of 15,018 fans at Providence Park Wednesday. It was the most lopsided loss that the Thorns have suffered at Providence Park since 2014.

"It was a rough night in the office," Thorns coach Mark Parsons said.

After conceding 12 goals and recording a mediocre 2-3-3 record in their first eight games of the season, the Thorns started to turn a corner in the last few weeks as they posted back-to-back wins and clean sheets against the Washington Spirit and Utah Royals.

And Portland had the opportunity to make a statement with a result against the first-place North Carolina Courage Wednesday.

The Thorns and the Courage have been the top two teams in the NWSL over the last two years and Portland entered Wednesday's match with a chance to prove that it could still go toe-to-toe with North Carolina. Portland won the 2016 NWSL Shield and 2017 NWSL Championship title, while the Courage earned the 2016 NWSL Championship title and the 2017 NWSL Shield.

But the Thorns couldn't get the job done Wednesday night.

Instead, North Carolina continued to establish itself as the one elite club in the NWSL this season. The first-place Courage remain undefeated 11 games into the year and sit an incredible 12 points ahead of the second-place Seattle Reign in the standings.

"It's a hard-working direct team and it's tough to deal with that," Parsons said. "They're a very good team playing really well right now."

The Courage took the lead on Portland's home turf in the first half Wednesday and never looked back.

The opening goal came after Thorns defender Katherine Reynolds plowed into Courage midfielder Debinha in the box in the 31st minute. Referee Joseph Dickerson immediately pointed to the spot and Courage forward Lynn Williams converted the PK to give North Carolina the 1-0 lead.

The Thorns and Courage continued to battle throughout the first half, but North Carolina pulled away in the final 45 minutes.

After Debinha headed-home the second goal of the night in the 58th minute, the Thorns fell apart. Williams scored her second goal of the game four minutes later and Sam Mewis headed in a goal of her own following a North Carolina corner kick two minutes after that.

"It's tough to evaluate right now because of the emotion," Parsons said. "There were a lot of things that happened within those six minutes that I can't remember."

Reynolds, who was playing in her 100th NWSL game, put Portland on the board in the 89th minute when she fired a beautiful shot from the top of the box into the net. It was the first goal of her NWSL career.

But it was too little, too late.

The Thorns will have time to regroup following Wednesday's defeat. Due to the international break, Portland will not play its next match until June 16 when it travels to face the Chicago Red Stars.

"We can't get too low at this point," Parsons said. "We'll keep grinding. There's no doubt that this team has the quality and heart to be in a better position in the next few weeks and months."

-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com

503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg