The Ocean City Nor’easters will play the final road game of the 2023 regular season on Tuesday night and it might end up being the biggest one of the campaign. The Storm (6-0-3), currently in first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division, will travel to Wayne, Pa. to take on second place West Chester United (5-1-2). The game could go a long way toward deciding the division title.

Kickoff at YSC Sports is scheduled for 7 p.m. For fans unable to make it to the game, there is expected to be a live stream available HERE. There will also be live updates on Ocean City’s Twitter account (@OCNoreasters ).

This is the second of three league meetings between the two clubs. On June 6, the Nor’easters went on the road and beat WCU 2-0. Ryan Becher (UCLA / Hummelstown, PA) and Sander Roed (Louisville / Tranby, Norway) each scored a goal that night as Ocean City broke the club record for an unbeaten streak with their 20th game without a loss dating back to 2021. The first tiebreaker for postseason positioning is head-to-head and a win on Tuesday would clinch the season series over United and give the Nor’easters a seven-point lead atop the division. The teams will play again in the regular season finale at Carey Stadium (“The Beach House”) on July 16.

The two teams met before the season started as well. On March 21, the Nor’easters faced off with United in the opening game of the 2023 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. Both teams featured drastically different rosters. Only three current Ocean City players were on the US Open Cup roster (Andre Sabino, Brady Hochman, Joao Oliveira) and the West Chester team was the club’s roster from the United Soccer League of Pennsylvania team. Former Ocean City player Finn Reese scored the first goal for WCU but the Storm had three unanswered goals from Andres Latorre, Dylan Evande, and a penalty kick by Sabino. It was the 12th US Open Cup win in Ocean City’s USL League Two history (13th overall) which is the third-most of all amateur teams in the tournament’s Modern Era (1995-present).

The Nor’easters have extended that unbeaten streak since that last league game against WCU. Last Saturday at the Beach House, after a nearly two-hour lightning delay, Nick Pariano (Duke / Philadelphia, PA) converted a penalty kick in the final seconds to avoid the team’s first loss of the season. They finished with a 1-1 draw against the Storm’s biggest rivals in Reading United AC.

Saturday night’s draw extended Ocean City’s club record unbeaten streak to 24 games (18-0-6). The team’s last loss came on July 9, 2021 against West Chester United. The Nor’easters road unbeaten streak (also a club record) is currently at 20 games (14-0-6). The last road loss came on June 15, 2019 at Reading United.

The Nor’easters calling card, just like it was last season, is defense. The backline playing in front of goalkeeper Stefano Camerlengo (Missouri-KC / Pescara, Italy) has only allowed five goals in the team’s nine league matches, including four clean sheets. Camerlengo has started eight of the nine matches and has three shutouts and a 0.50 goals against average.

Offensively, Sander Roed leads the team with five goals, followed by Ryan Becher with three. Alessandro Arlotti (Harvard / San Remo, Italy) leads the team with four assists, including three of them coming in one game (tying a single-game club record) in a 4-1 road win over Philadelphia Lone Star on June 21.

Since their 2-0 home loss to Ocean City on June 6 (their only loss of the season), West Chester is unbeaten in their last three games (2-0-1). After a 1-1 draw on the road against Reading United (June 14), they crushed Lehigh Valley United 6-0.

Last Saturday, they played one of the more exciting games of the season. After jumping out to a 1-0 lead at home against Real Central New Jersey, RCNJ scored two goals in three minutes to go in front. Then, WCU answered back with goals from Jack Jasinski and Harrison Coron in a three-minute space (17th & 19th mins.) to retake the lead. Then RCNJ equalized right before halftime to make it 3-3. Coron gave WCU the lead back in the 56th minute, but RCNJ equalized 10 minutes later. But then, in the 89th minute, Kyle Tucker scored the game-winner for West Chester in the 89th minute.

The dramatic win kept WCU within striking distance of Ocean City. A win on Tuesday would bring them within one point of the top spot, with a game in hand. 

West Chester United, which was founded in 1976, quickly became one of the top amateur clubs in the region since their first season of their adult soccer program in 2008. And while they have a long list of accomplishments in various leagues and tournaments, they didn’t join USL League Two until until 2021 when they won the Mid-Atlantic Division title with an 11-1-2 record. That year, Ocean City and WCU played four times. Each team won a game and the third finished in a draw. The two clubs faced off in the playoffs on a neutral site and West Chester edged the Storm 1-0. It was the first time the Nor’easters had played a team four times in a single season. Last year, Ocean City swept all three games against West Chester en route to the Mid-Atlantic Division title. This year, combined with the US Open Cup game back in March, there will be four meetings for the second time in three years.