The Ocean City Nor’easters will begin their 2023 USL League Two playoff run on the road this weekend. The two-time defending Mid-Atlantic Division champs will travel north to take on a familiar opponent when they face the Long Island Rough Riders in the opening round for the second year in a row.

Long Island will host the playoff doubleheader at the Mitchell Athletic Complex in Uniondale, NY on Friday. The first game will kick off at 4 p.m. with the Northeast Division champion Seacoast United Phantoms facing one of the Eastern Conference’s two wild card teams, the Hudson Valley Hammers. The Hammers finished in second place behind Long Island in the Metropolitan Division. The Nor’easters will face the Rough Riders in the second game of the day which will kick off at 7 p.m.

Fans unable to make the trip can watch the game online. A link will be posted on the Nor'easters' social media accounts.

The winners of each Friday game will square off in the Eastern Conference Semifinal on Sunday at the same venue. Kickoff of that game is scheduled for 2 p.m.

The Nor’easters (8-1-5) are making their third straight playoff appearance and their 10th overall as a member of USL League Two. Since joining the league in 2003, Ocean City has the fourth-best overall record and the fourth-best home record. In the history of the league, the Storm have the fifth-most wins. Despite those regular season accomplishments, the Nor’easters are still seeking their first USL-2 championship.

The Nor’easters clinched the Mid-Atlantic Division title prior to their regular season finale against West Chester United. They would suffer their first loss in two years in that finale, bringing the club’s record 28-game regular season unbeaten streak to an end. Playing away from home is not a problem for the Storm. They ended the regular season with a club-record 21-game road unbeaten streak that dates back to 2019.

Sander Roed (Louisville / Trandby, Norway) was the top scorer for the Nor’easters with seven goals and three assists (17 points), while Alessandro Arlotti (Harvard / San Remo, Italy)  led the team in assists with eight (to go along with three goals), one shy of the single-season club record. Nick Pariano (Duke / Philadelphia, PA) and Jamie Davis (New Hampshire / Cheshire, England) tied for third on the team in scoring with each player scoring three goals and two assists

Outside defender Joao de Oliveira (Bethel College / Santa Clarita, Brazil) finished as the only player on the roster who played in every single game this year. Jan Riecke (Harvard / Berlin, Germany) led the team in minutes played (1,150)

Goalkeeper Stefano Camerlengo has started all but two of the club’s games this year. He finished the season with a 7-0-5 record with four clean sheets. His 0.67 goals against average is the third-best single-season mark in club history.

The Rough Riders are the second-best offensive team in the league this year, scoring 44 goals in 14 matches. The only team that scored more was Texas United who scored 72 (42 of them were against one team) They finished with a 12-1-1 record. Their lone loss came against the Cedar Stars on June 19. This was the second time in the last three years that they have won the Metropolitan Division. Last year, they finished second but still managed to make the playoffs. After coming back to beat Ocean City in the opening round of the postseason, they beat three more teams to advance to the league championship game. There they would travel across the country to California and fell 2-1 to the Ventura County Fusion.

According to the league website, Matthew Whelan and Ryan Carmichael are leading the team in scoring with seven goals each.

As frequent members of the same division, the Nor'easters and the Rough Riders have been playing each other since the two were professional teams. When they first met in 2001, Long Island was an A-League team (Division 2 pro) and the Nor'easters were a D-3 Pro League (Division 3) team known as the South Jersey Barons.

The two clubs have met twice in some pretty big games. In the Second Round of the 2005 US Open Cup, the Nor'easters upset the Rough Riders, 4-0 when Long Island was a USL Second Division (pro) team. In 2009, Ocean City went on the road and knocked off Long Island in the opening round of the PDL (now USL-2) playoffs. The last time the two clubs met in league play was back in 2019 when they were both members of the Mid-Atlantic Division. The last time they met in a regular season game was in the last game of the 2019 campaign when the two teams finished in a 3-3 draw with Deri Corfe scoring a pair of goals to clinch the league scoring title and eventually the USL-2 MVP award.

The last time they met was on a neutral field (in Newport News, Va.) last season in the opening round of the USL-2 playoffs. MD Myers (now playing for New York City FC 2) scored the opening goal in the 29th minute for the Storm, but Long Island scored three straight goals in the final 19 minutes to eliminate Ocean City, 3-1. 

This will be the 25th all-time meeting between the Nor’easters and the Rough Riders and Long Island holds a narrow edge in the all-time series at 10-9-5.