The Ocean City Nor’easters will continue the club’s homestand to close out the 2023 USL League Two season on Friday night at Carey Stadium (“The Beach House”). The Nor’easters will host the Philadelphia Lone Star FC in Ocean City, N.J., America’s Greatest Family Resort.

Ocean City enters the game undefeated with a 6-0-5 record, which puts them in first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division. They are just two points ahead of second place West Chester United. The Storm have three games remaining (including Friday), while United have four games left. If they can hold off WCU, they would win a second straight division title and qualify for the playoffs for the third year in a row.

All home games kick off at 7 p.m. 

Single-game tickets can be purchased for $10 each (general admission). The easiest way to purchase tickets is to buy them online through the Nor'easters website (OceanCityFC.com). Tickets can also be purchased at the Carey Stadium gate either with cash or with a smartphone.

Any youth, high school or college soccer coach is entitled to a free season membership for all home games at Carey Stadium. Coaches interested in season tickets just have to register and fill out a short survey by clicking HERE. Also, youth soccer players from SJEB FC, New Jersey Surf and Cohansey Premier can get in free by wearing their club's shirt to Carey Stadium.

For fans unable to make it out to the Beach House, the Nor'easters are partnering with BFA Productions to provide a live video stream through the digital streaming platform Eleven Sports, Local broadcast veteran Mike Frankel will be handling the play-by-play duties. Fans can follow the action live at Eleven Sports. The link will also be shared on the Nor’easters’ Twitter account.

The Nor’easters have struggled to find wins in their last three games, but they haven’t lost a game. For just the second time in club history (2011), OCN have finished in a draw in each of the last three matches. All of the matches have been dramatic. On June 24 at the Beach House, Ocean City’s Nick Pariano (Duke / Philadelphia, PA) scored an equalizing penalty kick to earn a 1-1 draw against long-time rival Reading United AC. Three days later, after falling behind 2-0 on the road against West Chester United, Joao Oliveira (Bethel College / Santa Catarina, Brazil) and Sander Roed (Louisville / Tranby, Norway) each scored a goal in the final 15 minutes to earn a 2-2 draw. Last Friday, back in Ocean City, the home team were just a few minutes away from a 1-0 win but Real Central New Jersey’s Hale Lombard scored one of the best goals of the season to tie the match in the 87th minute.

The Nor’easters enter Friday’s match riding a club record unbeaten streak of 26 games (18-0-8) dating back to 2021. The team’s last loss came on July 9, 2021 against West Chester United. That WCU game was also the last time the Storm lost a home game. Their home unbeaten streak at the Beach House is now at 11 games, which is tied for the second-longest streak in club history.

Philadelphia enters the game with a 3-4-2 record, which is good for fourth place in the division. Lone Star have five games remaining. They have a congested schedule to start he month of July. They were originally supposed to play four games in seven days, but a Fourth of July match was postponed due to weather. Their last match came the day after (July 5) in a 3-3 home draw with Real Central New Jersey. After falling behind 2-0, Philly scored goals in the 73rd (Eric Swen Jr.) and 77th minutes (Francis Early) to tie the game. Kouassi N’Guessan gave Lone Star the lead in the 88th minute, but just how RCNJ stole a point from Ocean City in their last game, they did it to Philadelphia. Marcus Hackett scored the equalizer in the 90th minute. With that draw, Lone Star are winless in their last three matches.

Offensively, Sander Roed leads the team with six goals, followed by Ryan Becher with three. Alessandro Arlotti (Harvard / San Remo, Italy) leads the team with seven assists, including three of them coming in one game (tying a single-game club record) in a 4-1 road win over Philadelphia Lone Star on June 21.

Stefano Camerlengo (Missouri-KC / Pescara, Italy) has started all but one of the matches in goal for Ocean City. He is 5-0-5 with three shutouts and a 0.70 goals against average.

This is the third meeting of the season between the two clubs. On June 21, the Nor’easters traveled to Philadelphia and beat Lone Star 4-1. Alessandro Arlotti (Harvard / San Remo, Italy) tied a single-game club record by assisting on three of the team’s four goals. There were four different goalscorers on the night: Jamie Davis (New Hampshire / St. Peter’s / Cheshire, England), Sander Roed, Nick Pariano, and Josh Jones (Louisville / Hatfield, PA) all tallied for Ocean City.

On May 26, the Nor’easters edged Philly 1-0 in Ocean City’s home opener. Andrew Kitch scored his first Ocean City goal in the 8th minute and Stefano Camerlengo preserved his first clean sheet by saving a penalty kick in the 77th minute.

The Nor'easters and Lone Star FC have met nine times, eight of them in league play (10 times if you include a 1-1 draw in a friendly in 2017). Ocean City is riding a six-game unbeaten streak against Philadelphia.

The first time the two clubs played was in the First Round of the 2017 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup at the Beach House. Fredlin Mompremier, Tyler Collishaw and Akeil Barrett all scored for the Storm that day, with Ignacio Tellechea adding a pair of assists.

In league play, Ocean City has won six of the eight all-time meetings with one draw and one loss (7-1-1). The lone loss to Philadelphia came at Carey Stadium on June 23, 2021. Lone Star won 2-1 which was the Storm's first loss of the season and snapped their 15-game unbeaten streak and 13-game home unbeaten streak.

Last year, after a 2-1 comeback win in the home opener on May 27, the Nor'easters settled for a scoreless draw in Philadelphia on July 6. That day, Felix Schafer picked up his fourth clean sheet and former head coach Kevin Nuss broke the club record with his 19th straight unbeaten game as a coach. The third and final meeting for the Storm was also in Philadelphia for the last game of the regular season. Alessandro Arlotti scored the second fastest hat trick in club history (49th, 60th, 61st mins.), including one of them being voted USL League Two Goal of the Week. Jeorgio Kocevski added a PK in the 4-0 win that clinched the club's first undefeated regular season since 2004. Felix Scafer also started and played 67 minutes which was enough to break the single-season club record for goals against average (0.55). Assistant coach and current head coach Matt Perrella replaced him in goal and finished out the 4-0 win.
 

2023 USL League Two Mid-Atlantic Division Standings (7/6)