Recap by Olivia Currier

On Friday night, the Ocean City Nor’easters hosted the Lehigh Valley United Rush (0-7-0) at Carey Stadium ("the Beach House") looking to continue the best start in club history. The Nor’easters emerged with a 3-0 victory, featuring goals by Alberto Cruz (Memphis / Madrid, Spain), Colin Veltri (Elon / Mays Landing, NJ), and Jalen Anderson (South Florida / Hamden, CT).

Goalkeeper Marc Bonnaire (West Virginia / Warrenton, VA) earned his second clean sheet of the season, improving his personal record to 4-0-0.

With the win, the Nor’easters are now 7-0-0 for the first time in club history. This puts the Storm comfortably in first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division, eight points clear of second place West Chester United with a game in hand. Elsewhere, the Seacoast United Phantoms were victorious, which means, the Phantoms and the Nor'easters remain the only two teams with a perfect record in the 128-team USL League Two.


Excitement and anticipation levels were high at Carey Stadium, which hosted one of the season's largest crowds at America's Greatest Family Resort. The match was characterized by strong finesse play and physicality by the
Nor’easters.

In the 9th minute, Jansen Miller (Indiana / Ballwin, MO) hustled to keep the ball in bounds before firing a low cross from the right side. The ball connected with Alberto Cruz directly in front of the net who expertly tapped in the shot, giving the Nor’easters an early lead. It was the third goal of the season for Cruz, who is now tied for the team lead with defenders Agustin Resch (Seton Hall / Arata, Argentina) and Josh Jones (Louisville / Hatfield, PA).

Only three minutes later in the 12th minute, Resch launched the ball down the field and found Miller, who streaked toward the net. As Miller neared the touchline, he dropped it off to Colin Veltri, who fired in the Nor’easter’s second goal off the far left post and into the back of the net. It was the second goal of the season for the Mays Landing native.

Later in the first half, the Nor’easters nearly scored again on a corner kick by Kaelan Debbage (Spring Arbor Univ. / Queensland, Australia). The ball was picked up by Veltri and passed forward to Cruz who scored, only to discover the offside flag had already been issued on the near side of the field.

However, in the 67th minute, the Nor’easters did secure the 3-0 lead. This time, Nolan Spicer (Notre Dame / Bay Village, OH) made a through pass to Debbage who, in turn, made a quick cross pass to Veltri. The ball got caught underneath Veltri and was unintentionally knocked forward to Jalen Anderson, who seized the third and final goal. It was Anderson's second goal of the campaign.

With two games this weekend, some players saw action for the first time. Ocean City's three UCLA players, Phillip Naef (UCLA / Copenhagen, Denmark), Tre Wright (UCLA / Austin, TX) and Sam Scott (UCLA / Frisco, TX) all came off the bench to make their season debut. The newly-signed Bryce Meredith (Memphis / Raleigh, NC), who played for the Storm last season, made his 2024 debut, playing all 90 minutes at center back.

Diego Palma (Indiana Wesleyan / Santiago, Chile), who has played in every game this season as a second half sub, was rewarded with his first start in an Ocean City uniform.

Head Coach Matt Perrella provided this comment when asked about the teams first ever 7-0-0 start, "The group is just playing well, we're finding success early in matches to give us the ability to work on things in the game that we need to address. Multiple players are contributing to the score sheet helping us maintain a level of unpredictability, there's just a great balance of shared responsibility and players stepping up to add to the group". 

There will be a quick turnaround for the next game as the Nor’easters will return to action on Sunday, June 23 at 7 p.m. against Real Central New Jersey at the Beach House.

Single-game tickets for Nor'easters home games can be purchased for $10 each. 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.