The Ocean City Nor’easters remained undefeated after a 1-1 draw with Reading United AC on Friday night. While the league’s longest winning streak would end at seven games, the Nor’easters have yet to taste defeat during the 2022 USL League Two season (7-0-2) and extend the club’s unbeaten streak to 10 games dating back to the 2021 season, and remain one of 10 clubs in the entire league that have yet to lose a game.

The Nor’easters’ lone goal came from Nick Pariano (Duke / Philadelphia, PA) who scored his first of the season in the 44th minute off a rebound. The goal came from some clever passing starting with Benjamin Cam Orellana (Univ. of Rio Grande / Santiago, Chile) on the left wing to created space and found Daniel Diaz-Bonilla (Princeton / Vienna, VA)  for a short pass into the box on the left side. Diaz-Bonilla quickly found Ocean City’s leading scorer Alessandro Arlotti (Harvard / San Remo, Italy) who drove toward goal drawing the goalkeeper out. With the goalkeeper out, and the defense shifting their attention to Arlotti, he found a Pablo Marques (Univ. of Tampa / Joao Pessoa, Brazil), the hat trick hero from Wednesday’s 5-2 win over RCNJ at the six-yard box. Marques had an open goal but a Reading defender saved it off the line, only to have it fall to Pariano who buried it for the game’s opening goal.

It was a fitting reward for Pariano who has been rock solid all season for the Storm as the only player on the roster to play every minute of every game.

Reading would answer just after halftime in the 47th minute when Ryan Kuster pounced on a loose ball after a corner kick.

Pariano also had the best chance to break the tie in the 85th minute when Alessandro Arlotti made a nice move to shake a defender on the end line on the right wing, gained the box and found a wide open Pariano in the box on the left side. Pariano’s shot took a deflection and hit off the left post and out of bounds.

In second half stoppage time, the Nor’easters nearly added another late game-winner to their 2022 when a corner kick was headed in, but the assistant referee called it off for a foul.

Felix Schafer (Santa Clara / Berlin, Germany) made three saves for the Nor’easters as his record stands at 6-0-1 on the season.

The game was played at Carey Stadium (“The Beach House”) in Ocean City N.J., America’s Greatest Family Resort. With the draw, the Nor’easters remain in first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division, four points ahead of second place West Chester United. The Storm will travel to West Chester United on Wednesday, June 29 in a crucial match. A win for Ocean City would give them a seven point lead and a critical head-to-head tiebreaker.

It was the 55th all-time meeting between Ocean City and Reading, a rivalry that dates back to 1997 when both teams were professional sides. It is the oldest active rivalry, not just within USL League Two, but in all the United Soccer Leagues. The draw puts the Storm’s unbeaten streak against their rivals at six games (4-0-2), and gives them seven points from the three 2022 meetings. Ocean City earned back-to-back shutout wins on the road against United on June 4 and June 17.

This is the second year in a row that the Nor’easters will finish a regular season without a loss to Reading. In a testament to how competitive this rivalry has been, the last time they did that in consecutive seasons was a run from 2003-2006. 

Despite the draw, and with Real Central New Jersey leapfrogging them into third place, Reading still has a chance to qualify for the playoffs as a wild card as the best second place team between the Mid-Atlantic Division and the Chesapeake Division. They have four games remaining, two against RCNJ, one against Lehigh Valley and a must-win against West Chester United on July 2.

The draw also extends Nor’easters head coach Kevin Nuss’ personal coaching unbeaten streak to 16 games dating back to the 2019 season. The club record for a coach is 18, set by Dan Christian during the club’s undefeated regular season in 2004.

The next home game for the Nor'easters will be on Friday, July 1 when they take on Real Central New Jersey. Tickets are on sale now on the Nor'easters website at OceanCityFC.com.