Preview: Nor'easters put league's longest win streak on line vs. RCNJ tonight at Beach House
Tickets on sale as Ocean City seeks milestone 100th win at Carey Stadium
Fresh off setting a new club record with an 11-game road unbeaten streak, the Ocean City Nor’easters return home to take on Real Central New Jersey on Sunday night. The first place Nor’easters are undefeated (6-0-1) and have won their last six games.
Sunday’s opponent is the only team that Ocean City hasn’t beaten this year. Back on May 21, RCNJ held the Storm to a 1-1 draw on the road in the season opener. Since then, the Nor’easters have won six straight games, the longest active winning streak in all of USL League Two.
The game will be played at Carey Stadium (“The Beach House”) in Ocean City, N.J., America’s Greatest Family Resort. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Buying tickets and season memberships is easier than ever. The best value is to purchase a season membership for $50, which includes all remaining regular season home games and any potential exhibition or playoff games. Single-game tickets can be purchased for $10 each (general admission) HERE.
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.
As a reminder, 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 the link will also be shared on the Nor'easters social media accounts two hours before kickoff.
This will be the second game of the weekend for the Nor’easters after winning a 1-0 road game against long-time rival Reading United AC on Friday. With they win, they set a new club record by extending Ocean City’s road unbeaten streak to 11 games. Daniel Diaz-Bonilla scored the lone goal in the 8th minute and Felix Schafer made five saves to earn his second shutout of the campaign. It was also a third straight road win against Reading and extended their overall unbeaten streak against their longest rival to five games.
Alessandro Arlotti’s six-game point streak came to an end, but he remains the Nor’easters’ leading scorer with four goals and two assists (10 points). Nicolas Cam Orellana, who assisted on Diaz-Bonilla’s game-winner on Friday night, is second with four goals and one assist.
For Real Central New Jersey, they enter Sunday’s road game on a high after a dramatic 5-4 home win over Philadelphia Lone Star FC on Friday night. They overcame an early Lone Star goal by taking the lead 2-1 with goals from Wesley Legget and Hale Lombard, only to see Philadelphia score back-to-back goals to regain the lead 3-2. RCNJ then scored to tie the game with a second tally from Lombard, and that was all in the first half! RCNJ got the lead back on a 51st minute goal from Daniel Tittelmayer, only to see Lone Star equalize in the 76th minute. The hero was Sergio Aguinaga who scored the game-winner in the 88th minute in what might be the most dramatic win in the club’s two-year history. The win also snapped a two-game losing streak.
It completed a three-game season sweep against Philadelphia to improve RCNJ’s record to 3-3-2. All three of their wins have come against Lone Star FC. Real Central New Jersey can leapfrog Reading into third place in the division with a win on Sunday night.
RCNJ’s leading scorer is Stas Korzeniowski from the University of Pennsylvania with six goals and three assists. Jake Langley and Eric Wnorowski have split time in goal with the former sporting a much better goals against average at 0.57.
This will be the fourth all-time meeting between the two teams. Ocean City swept both games last year by a combined score of 8-0, before the 1-1 draw in the season opener this year.