The Ocean City Nor’easters will begin the second half of the 2023 USL League Two season on Wednesday with a road game against Philadelphia Lone Star FC.

The Nor’easters enter the midweek matchup at Bartram High School in Philadelphia undefeated (5-0-2) and in first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division. The Storm enter the game riding a pair of club record unbeaten streaks. They have a 22-game regular season unbeaten streak and a 19-game road unbeaten streak. The Nor'easters are currently ranked No. 9 in the league's latest power rankings.

Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. The game will be streamed by Philadelphia Lone Star on YouTube with no announcers (video embedded below). Fans can follow live updates on Ocean City’s Twitter account (@OCNoreasters ).



In their last game, they were held to a scoreless draw on the road against Real Central New Jersey last Wednesday. Stefano Camerlengo (Missouri-KC / Pescara, Italy) earned his third clean sheet of the season for Ocean City. Camerlengo has started six of the team’s seven matches, holding a 4-0-2 record and boasting a 0.50 goals against average, which is among the league leaders.

While the Nor’easters’ defense has been receiving most of the headlines with only allowing three goals in seven matches, there are some talented offensive players. Sander Roed (Louisville / Tranby, Norway) leads the team with four goals, followed by Ryan Becher (UCLA / Hummelstown, PA) 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 (all of them to Ryan Becher) and Nick Pariano (Duke / Philadelphia, PA) has two. The defense has had two defenders honored by the league this season. Jan Riecke (Harvard / Berlin, Germany) was named to the USL-2 Team of the Month for May and Josh Jones (Louisville / Hatfield, PA) was selected for the league’s most recent Top Performers list. Pariano was listed on the Top Performers list earlier in the season.

Philadelphia (3-2-1) enter Wednesday’s game in third place in the Mid-Atlantic Division. Last Saturday, Lone Star snapped a three-game winless streak (0-2-1) with a 3-2 home win over Reading United AC. Mamadou Diarra scored a pair of goals as Philly maintained their perfect record at home (3-0-0). With seven points behind first place Ocean City, and a game in hand, a win could bring the division title within reach.   

This is the second meeting of the season between the two clubs. On May 26, the Nor’easters edged Philly 1-0 in Ocean City’s home opener. Andrew Kitch scored his first Ocean City goal in the 8th minute and Stefano Camerlengo preserved his first clean sheet by saving a penalty kick in the 77th minute.

The Nor'easters and Lone Star FC have met eight times, seven of them in league play (nine times if you include a 1-1 draw in a friendly in 2017). Ocean City is riding a five-game unbeaten streak against Philadelphia.

The first time the two clubs played was in the First Round of the 2017 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup at the Beach House. Fredlin Mompremier, Tyler Collishaw and Akeil Barrett all scored for the Storm that day, with Ignacio Tellechea adding a pair of assists.

In league play, Ocean City has won five of the seven meetings with one draw and one loss. The lone loss to Philadelphia came at Carey Stadium on June 23, 2021. Lone Star won 2-1 which was the Storm's first loss of the season and snapped their 15-game unbeaten streak and 13-game home unbeaten streak.

Last year, after the aforementioned 2-1 comeback win in the home opener on May 27, the Nor'easters settled for a scoreless draw in Philadelphia on July 6. That day, Felix Schafer picked up his fourth clean sheet and head coach Kevin Nuss broke the club record with his 19th straight unbeaten game as a coach. The third and final meeting for the Storm was also in Philadelphia for the last game of the regular season. Alessandro Arlotti scored the second fastest hat trick in club history (49th, 60th, 61st mins.), including one of them being voted USL League Two Goal of the Week. Jeorgio Kocevski added a PK in the 4-0 win that clinched the club's first undefeated regular season since 2004. Felix Scafer also started and played 67 minutes which was enough to break the single-season club record for goals against average (0.55). Assistant coach and current head coach Matt Perrella replaced him in goal and finished out the 4-0 win.

This is the second to last road game of the season for Ocean City. After Wednesday’s match in Philadelphia, five of the six remaining games on the schedule are at Carey Stadium (“The Beach House”). The Nor’easters return home on Saturday, June 24 to face long-time rival Reading United. Kickoff for all home games is 7 p.m. Tickets for all home games can be purchased online at OceanCityFC.com/tickets.