The Ocean City Nor’easters will kick off the club’s 26th season, and the 20th in USL League Two on Saturday night. For the third year in a row, the Nor’easters will begin their season on the road against Real Central New Jersey.

The game will be played at Ben Cohen Field at Rider University in Lawrence Township, N.J. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Fans unable to make the trip to the game can watch a live stream of the game. A link to the live video will be posted on the Nor’easters social media accounts (@OCNoreasters)

After last season’s unbeaten regular season, the Nor’easters are looking to continue a number of streaks as the 2023 campaign begins. Ocean City will put their club record 14-game road unbeaten streak on the line on Saturday night and a 15-game unbeaten streak overall. The Nor’easters are also unbeaten in their last six season openers. They haven’t lost a season opener since 2015.

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. This will be just the sixth all-time meeting between Ocean City and Real Central NJ. The Nor’easters lead the series 4-0-1, outscoring RCNJ 15-3 overall.

Last year in the season opener, RCNJ held Ocean City to a 1-1 draw. They were one of three teams in the regular season to earn a point against Ocean City. The second game 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).

The Nor’easters are returning seven players for 2023, including six of them who were on the roster for last year’s undefeated regular season. One of the returning players is goalkeeper Felix Schafer (Santa Clara / Berlin, Germany), who was not only USL League Two’s Golden Glove winner as the league’s best netminder, but he was a finalist for the league’s Player of the Year.

Also back is last year’s team MVP and Offensive Player of the Year Alessandro Arlotti (Harvard / San Remo, Italy).

Leading the midfield will be Nick Pariano (Duke / Philadelphia, PA) who was the team’s Nor’easter Award winner and just narrowly missed out on the team MVP award.

Galen Flynn (St. Louis Univ. / West Hartford, CT), last year’s Creative Player of the Year, will be back to help lead a defense that broke the single-season club record for goals allowed (9) and goals against average (0.64).