The Ocean City Nor’easters return home to the Beach House this weekend to take on Lehigh Valley United. On Saturday night, the Nor’easters, who are in first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division, will put their undefeated record (4-0-1) on the line in front of their home fans.

Just like all home games, kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Carey Stadium in Ocean City, N.J., America’s Greatest Family Resort.

Single-game tickets can be purchased for $10 each (general admission). The easiest way to purchase tickets is to buy them online through the Nor'easters website (OceanCityFC.com). Tickets can also be purchased at the Carey Stadium gate either with cash or with a smartphone.

Once again, any youth, high school or college soccer coach is entitled to a free season membership for all home games at Carey Stadium. Coaches interested in season tickets just have to register and fill out a short survey by clicking HERE. Also, youth soccer players from SJEB FC, New Jersey Surf and Cohansey Premier can get in free by wearing their club's shirt to Carey Stadium.

For fans unable to make it out to the Beach House, the Nor'easters are partnering with BFA Productions to provide a live video stream of both of this weekend's games through the digital streaming platform Eleven Sports, Local broadcast veteran Mike Frankel will handle the play-by-play duties. Fans can watch the game HERE and also find links on the Nor'easters' social media accounts (@OCNoreasters).

Saturday night marks the second meeting of the season between Ocean City and Lehigh Valley. On May 24, the second game of the regular season, the Nor’easters traveled to Bethlehem, Pa. and beat United 3-1. That day, Sander Roed (Louisville / Tranby, Norway) scored a pair of goals and teenager Andrew Kitch (North Carolina / Medford, NJ) scored his first goal in an Ocean City uniform. Stefano Camerlengo (Missouri-KC / Pescara, Italy) made his debut in goal that day and picked up the win. LVU scored a late goal that day, which snapped the Storm’s club record shutout streak at 587 minutes.

With that win, Ocean City improved its all-time record against LVU to 14-2-0. The only two losses have come on the road. The Nor’easters are 7-0-0 all-time against Lehigh Valley at the Beach House. The Storm have won the last six meetings, including a two-game season sweep last year. On June 8, the Nor’easters came back to win 2-1 at Carey Stadium (“The Beach House”) with Nicolas Cam Orellana scoring both goals in the final 20 minutes. Current Nashville SC (MLS) goalkeeper Ben Martino picked up the win in goal for the Storm. Three days later, Ocean City traveled to Bethlehem, Pa. where they won 3-1 on goals from Alessandro Arlotti (Harvard / San Remo, Italy), Daniel Diaz-Bonilla (Syracuse / Vienna, VA) and Galen Flynn (St. Louis / West Hartford, CT).

The Nor’easters have done it with defense in the early part of the 2023 USL League Two season. They have allowed just two goals in five games with three shutout wins. One piece of evidence about the team’s exceptional defensive performance is that defender Jan Riecke (Harvard / Berlin, Germany) was named to the USL League Two Team of the Month (May). Among the teams who have played at least five games, only five teams in the entire league have allowed two or fewer goals (Flint City Bucks, Lionsbridge FC, Long Island Rough Riders, Miami AC).

Sander Roed leads the Storm in scoring with four goals, followed by Andrew Kitch with two. Only 10 players in the league have more goals than Roed does. Nick Pariano (Duke / Philadelphia, PA) is the only player on the team with multiple assists (2). Ever since starting against LVU on March 24, Camerlengo has started every game, earning a 3-0-1 record with two clean sheets.  

While Ocean City has just five game under their belts, Lehigh Valley will be playing in their eighth game of the season. United are still seeking their first win as they enter the weekend with an 0-5-2 record. They lost their season opener on the road, 3-0 vs. Philadelphia Lone Star FC on May 13. They returned home and picked up their first point of the season with a 1-1 draw with Reading United AC. Lehigh Valley nearly had all three points but Reading scored an 84th minute equalizer. After back-to-back losses to West Chester United and Ocean City, they played a home and home with Real Central New Jersey. They lost a narrow 1-0 decision at home before falling 4-1 on the road.

In their last game, Lehigh Valley let one slip away against Philadelphia Lone Star. They took a 2-0 lead into the halftime break on first half goals by Asparuh Slavov and Nigel Griffith. Philly answered with two goals of their own in the second half and the game finished at 2-2. Colin Griffith will be unavailable on Saturday night as he picked up a red card in the 87th minute. 

Last year, Lehigh Valley struggled with a 1-12-1 record, finishing in last place in the Mid-Atlantic Division.