The Ocean City Nor'easters fell to the New York Red Bulls Under-23s 3-1 on the road to bring an end to their undefeated run to start the 2017 Premier Development League (PDL) season.

Despite the loss, the Nor'easters remain tied for first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division with the Red Bulls.

After trailing 2-0 at halftime, Ignacio Tellechea (West Virginia Tech / Madrid, Spain) scored his team-leading third goal of the season hoping to ignite a comeback, but Ocean City were unable to find an equalizer. New York would add another goal to put the game away to improve to 3-0-0 on the early season.

In the 23rd minute, an attempted clearance from Daniel Nimmo (Campbellsville / Lithigow, Scotland) was blocked and the Red Bulls took adavantage. Brian White dribbled forward a few yards and fired a shot into the bottom right hand corner of the goal past goalkeeper Jimmy Slayton (Hartford / Wethersfield, CT).

Right before the half, Nor'easters defender Malcolm Stewart (Charlotte / Ball Ground, GA) committed an ill-timed challenge in the box and the referee awarded the hosts a penalty kick. José Aguinaga converted from the spot in the first minute of stoppage time to give the Red Bulls a 2-0 lead heading into the break.

Going into the second half, Ocean City needed another dramatic comeback after already erasing a 2-0 lead to beat Evergreen FC last week.

In the 55th minute, Ismael Noumansana (Lenor-Ryne / Reims, France) played an excellent ball through to Tellechea who chipped the outcoming keeper to cut the lead in half. Had his shot not gone in, the referee would have awarded a penalty kick to Ocean City after the keeper took down Tellechea. However, the official correctly played the advantage and allowed the goal.

Tellechea, along with defender Nikola Fimic (Oklahoma Wesleyan / Novi Sad, Serbia), were ranked among the Top 20 pro prospects in the PDL earlier in the week.

Ocean City came close on several occasions to finding an equalizing goal. They hit the woodwork four times in the second half. Noumansana, Nimmo, Max Hemmings (Georgia State / Wokingham, England), and Daniel Kozma (Grand View / Budapest, Hungary) were all unlucky to not score.

In the 82nd minute, Juan Sanchez scored for the Red Bulls to extend their lead to 3-1. Ocean City had been committing men forward to find the tying goal leaving them light at the back and the MLS academy side took advantage to put the game away.

Proud of the fight we showed against an MLS academy, hit the post 4 times...just not our night! We will come back.

— Nimmo (@Dan5Nimmo) May 28, 2017

Next up, the Nor'easters will play a third straight game on the road on Friday, June 2 as they travel to Eastern Pennsylvania to face their biggest rival, Reading United AC. It will be a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference championship game which Ocean City won 4-1. It will be the 43rd all-time meeting between the clubs, one of the oldest rivalries in the PDL.