The Ocean City Nor'easters took care of business at home on Friday night with a 1-0 win over Real Central New Jersey. The Storm remain undefeated (9-0-2) and continue their best start to a season since 2004.

With that result, the Nor'easters will now be scoreboard watching on Saturday night. If Reading United are able to get a win or a draw at home against second place West Chester United, then Ocean City will clinch their first Mid-Atlantic Division title since 2013. If Reading does not earn a point against West Chester on Saturday, the Nor'easters can clinch the division themselves with a win or a draw on the road against Philadelphia Lone Star FC on Wednesday, July 6.

Benjamin Cam Orellana's (Univ. of Rio Grande / Santiago, Chile) first goal of the season in the 17th minute was the difference as the Nor'easters won their sixth one-goal game of the season. Goalkeeper Felix Schafer (Santa Clara / Berlin, Germany) made four saves to pick up his third clean sheet of the season. Schafer also earned his eighth win of the season which is the most by a goalkeeper since currrently LAFC goalkeeper John McCarthy won 11 games in 2012 (NOTE: Ocean City played a 16-game schedule in 2012). 

"Another great team performance," said Nor'easters head coach Kevin Nuss. "Real Central did some things we needed to adjust to and the boys took the change on and fought to get us what we needed."

The Nor'easters end the evening one of just six teams that are undefeated

The win also extended a number of streaks for the Nor'easters:

* 12-game regular season unbeaten streak (dating back to 2021)
* 6-game home unbeaten streak (5-0-1)
* 5-game unbeaten streak vs. RCNJ (4-0-1)

The most impressive streak of the bunch is that the win brings Kevin Nuss' personal coaching unbeaten streak to 18 games. That ties the Nor'easters' all-time record set by Dan Christian in 2004. Christian was in charge of the 2004 team that finished the regular season undefeated (14-0-4). The unbeaten streak by Nuss combines the last seven games of his last tenure in charge of the Nor'easters in 2019, which the team finished with a 4-0-3 record. When Nuss returned to the Ocean City sidelines in 2022, he has picked up where he left off. 

The game's only goal came early when MD Myers (Rutgers / Delran, NJ) collected the ball on the right side of the penalty area. He played the ball across to Daniel Diaz-Bonilla (Princeton / Vienna, VA) at the top of the box, who touched the ball immediately to Benjamin Cam Orellana on his left. The Chilean forward took a touch to his left and fired a left footed blast along the ground that beat RCNJ goalkeeper Jake Langley to the opposite post.

Myers nearly added a second goal for Ocean City in the 28th minute when Cam Orellana curled a free kick into the box. Myers headed the ball on goal and forced a diving save from the RCNJ goalkeeper.

About four minutes later, some impressive ball movement from the Nor'easters midfield led to a long ball up the middle to Myers who nearly had a breakaway but the defense was able to close on him. Myers improvised and rather than laying off the ball to support, he freed himself up for a shot at the top of the box and Langley was forced to make a diving save to his right. 

Cam Orellana nearly added to the scoring just before halftime when he took a free kick just outside the near corner of the penalty area. He bent a ball directly on goal and was just inches away from ending up in the upper 90 but it stuck the crossbar. Moments later, a furious scramble in the box off a corner kick produced another shot on goal that Langley saved as the game went to halftime.

In the 54th minute, Diaz-Bonilla would have back-to-back shots on goal as Ocean City continued to put on pressure but both shots were saved by RCNJ goalkeeper Eric Wnorowski, who replaced Langley at halftime.

The Nor'easters continued to create chances in the second half, but were unable to add to their lead. The defense would hold strong to preserve the club's 101th all-time win at The Beach House.