The Ocean City Nor’easters, fresh off clinching the 2022 Mid-Atlantic Division championship, will travel north to the City of Brotherly Love to take on Philadelphia Lone Star FC on Wednesday night. The Nor’easters (9-0-2) are off to the club’s best 11-game start to a season since 2004 when Ocean City finished they regular season undefeated.

The game will be played at the South Philadelphia Super Site. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. According to Philadelphia Lone Star, they will have a live video stream (with no announcers) available. Click here for the live video.

The Nor’easters are flying high, riding an 12-game overall unbeaten streak dating back to last season, a club record 12-game road unbeaten streak (dating back to the 2019 season). Ocean City also is ranked No. 1 in USL League Two’s latest power rankings.

A win or draw by the Nor’easters would give Nor’easters head coach Kevin Nuss an impressive accomplishment. Entering Wednesday’s game, Nuss a has personal unbeaten streak as a coach of 18 games that dates back to his last tenure as Ocean City’s head coach in 2019. If he is able to reach 19 games, that would break the club record set by Dan Christian in 2004. 

Last Friday, the Nor’easters defeated Real Central New Jersey 1-0 on a first half goal from Benjamin Cam Orellana. Felix Schafer earned his third clean sheet of the season, and his eighth win. The following day, long-time rival Reading United held second place West Chester United to a 1-1 draw, which was enough for Ocean City to clinch the club’s first division title since 2013.

Alessandro Arlotti continues to be the Nor’easters’ top scorer with five goals and four assists. Out of those nine scoring plays, six of them have been game-winners, which is among the league leaders.

For Philadelphia Lone Star, they have had a considerable break entering Wednesday’s game. Their last game was June 25 when they beat Lehigh Valley United, 4-2. Aboubacar Camara, who is ranks third on USL League’s Two’s Top Prospects list, broke a 2-2 tie with two goals in the final 18 minutes. (Ocean City has three players on the Top Prospects list: Ben Martino at 9th, MD Myers at 29th, and Alessandro Arlotti at 39th). Camara leads the team with three goals in four games played. The win snapped a four-game losing streak and was their highest-scoring win of the season

The Nor’easters defeated Lone Star 2-1 at Carey Stadium (“The Beach House”) back on May 27th. It extended Ocean City’s home opener winning streak to five games. Nicolas Cam Orellana scored the opening goal for the Storm and Alessandro Arlotti added what would be the game-winner in the 76th minute. With that win, the Nor’easters lead the all-time series between the two clubs 4-1-0.

The Philadelphia Lone Star were supposed to join USL League Two as an expansion team in 2020, but the pandemic has pushed their debut until 2021. But when the two teams met for the first time in league play last year, it wasn't the first time they had played. The first time they met was in the 2017 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup when Ocean City blanked Lone Star FC (back when they were under the name "Junior Lone Star FC"), 3-1 in the First Round of the tournament. The two teams met again toward the end of the 2019 season in an exhibition game when Lone Star were a member of the NPSL. The game finished in a 1-1 draw with Deri Corfe scoring the lone goal and Philadelphia's only tally was an Ocean City own goal. Ocean City and Philadelphia met three times last season with each team winning on their home field by the score of 2-1 in the first two meetings, and the Storm cruising to a 6-0 win in Philadelphia in the regular season finale. .