The Ocean City Nor’easters and Real Central New Jersey will meet again on Wednesday night. The game will mark the midway point of the regular season at Ben Cohen Field in Lawrence Township, N.J., on the campus of Rider University.

It’s the same location as the first meeting between these two clubs in the season opener back on May 20. That day, Ocean City beat RCNJ 1-0 on a goal by Sander Roed (Louisville / Tranby, Norway). Felix Schafer (Santa Clara / Berlin, Germany) earned the clean sheet for the Nor’easters, which broke the club record for a shutout streak. When the final whistle blew, the Storm had gone 499 minutes without allowing a goal dating back to last season.

The rematch on Wednesday night will take place at 7 p.m.

Fans unable to make the short trip to Rider University can watch the game live on Eleven Sports.

The Nor’easters enter their midweek matchup in first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division with an undefeated record of 5-0-1. They are six points ahead of West Chester United, who have a game in hand over Ocean City. West Chester is also in action on Wednesday. They are traveling to play Reading United AC.

Ocean City brings a number of streaks into Wednesday’s game. They are unbeaten in their last 21 regular season games dating back to the end of the 2021 season. The Storm’s last regular season loss came on July 9, 2021 at home against West Chester United. They are also unbeaten in their last 18 road games. The last road loss came on June 15, 2019 when they fell 2-0 at Reading United AC. Both streaks are club records.

The Nor’easters are coming off a 4-1 home win over Lehigh Valley United this past Saturday. It was their 9th straight win at the Beach House. Ryan Becher (UCLA / Hummelstown, PA) scored a pair of first half goals and two more were added late in the second half to put the game away. Galen Flynn (St. Louis Univ. / West Hartford, CT) helped create an own goal in the 82nd minute and Leonardo D’Ambrosio (College of Charleston / Turin, Italy) added an impressive individual goal two minutes later.

Stefano Camerlengo (Missouri-KC / Pescara, Italy) has been holding it down in goal for the Nor’easters in 2023 so far. Felix Schafer picked up a shutout win in the season opener against RCNJ, and after that Camerlengo has been rock solid with a 4-0-1 record, including a pair of shutouts.

Sander Roed leads the team in scoring with four goals, followed by Becher with three and Andrew Kitch (North Carolina / Medford, NJ) with two. Brad Dildy (Univ. of Charlotte / San Antonio, TX) leads the team with three assists, with all three of them assisting on Ryan Becher’s from the last two games.

This is the seventh all-time meeting between Ocean City and RCNJ with the Storm leading the series 5-0-1. Four of the five wins against Real were clean sheets, including the last two meetings finishing 1-0. The only game where RCNJ has not lost was a 1-1 draw in last season’s season opener on their home field.

The second game last year at the Beach House in Ocean City, it was all Storm as they won 5-2. It was the 100th all-time win at Carey Stadium and Pablo Marques had a hat trick that day. In the third meeting of the season, it was much tighter as the Nor’easters squeaked out a 1-0 home win on a goal from Benjamin Cam Orellana. Felix Schafer picked up the clean sheet as the win would clinch the division title for Ocean City (after a result in another game went their way).

Real Central NJ is in just their third season as a franchise. After their inaugural season saw them with a 2-9-3 record, they made a big improvement last year, finishing in third place in the division with a 6-6-2 record.

They enter Wednesday’s game in a three-way tie for third place in the division with a 2-3-1 record. They began the season with three tough games at home at arguably the three best teams in the division. They would lose all three games (vs. West Chester United, Ocean City, Reading United), but they are unbeaten in their last three (2-0-1) since then. They swept a home-and-home with Lehigh Valley United and then last season they had a 3-3 draw with Reading United on the road. They fell behind and equalized three times in that game. Reading scored a go-ahead goal in the 87th minute, only to see Cole Sotack of RCNJ scoring to tie it up for the third and final time in the 88th minute.

RCNJ has had seven different goalscorers this season with Hale Lombard and Randall Dickersbach with two goals each.