The player at the heart of one of the Ocean City Nor'easters' greatest offensive seasons in team history added another honor to his resume.

On Wednesday, Simon Becher (St. Louis Univ. / Brooklyn, CT) was named to the USL League Two (USL2) Eastern Conference Team of the Year.

Graphic by Catta Design (IG: @catta_dsgn)

Becher led the Nor'easters with 11 regular season goals, and added one more in the playoffs to finish with 12 in 14 games across all competitions. His 11 regular season goals were tied for third-most in USL2.

Out of those 12 goals, six of them were game-winning goals, the most of any player in the league.

"Simon has lead from the front as captain and as our top goalscorer despite missing two of the first three games," said Nor'easters head coach Alan McCann. "He's produced consistently in the big moments and this is exactly what the professional clubs will be looking for in a striker."

Becher made his season debut in the second game of the season when he came off the bench on May 19. After replacing MD Myers in the 65th minute, Becher scored his first goal, a rebound off a saved PK, in the 75th minute. The St. Louis Billiken would add another goal in the 80th minute and complete his hat trick in the 85th minute to give him the fastest hat trick in Nor'easters club history. Becher also became the first Ocean City player to come off the bench to score three goals in a game.

On June 5, Becher would start his first game of the season on the road against Northern Virginia FC. He would score two goals, including the game-winner in the 46th minute in a 3-2 win. With five goals scored in 120 minutes of game play at that point of the season, he had established himself as a starter and would not relinquish that spot in the Starting XI for the rest of the season.

Becher would score a goal in each of the next two games, including the game-winner at home against Philadelphia Lone Star on June 9 as the Nor'easters had one of the best starts in club history with an eight-game unbeaten streak (5-0-3).

Becher finished the season strong. In the final five regular season games, scoring three goals (all game-winners), while helping the Nor'easters punch their ticket to the playoffs.

In the postseason, he played all 180 minutes of both games, and scored a clutch, game-winning penalty kick in the 76th minute against the Boston Bolts in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

At the conclusion of the season, Becher finished as the leading scorer on the second-highest scoring team in the league (40 goals in 14 games, 2.85 goals per game). This made him an easy choice for Ocean City's Offensive Player of the Year.



Becher comes back to the East Coast from St. Louis University where he was the Billikens’ leading scorer and a first-team All-Atlantic-10 selection this past season. In his sophomore year, he scored a pair of goals in an injury-shortened season. Prior to transferring to SLU, Becher played his freshman season at Holy Cross where he was an all-conference selection and he led the Crusaders in goals (7). Before that, he spent time in the U.S. Development Academy (Oakwood SC) and was called up to the U.S. Under-20 national team’s training camp on three separate occasions.