Ocean City draw 2-2 at Reading; Unbeaten streak reaches four
Nor'easters wrap up streak of six straight road games
Ocean City Nor’easters were able to fight their way back into the game at Reading United. At half time, the team trailed by two goals, but after an inspirational team talk from coach Neil Holloway, and some attacking changes, the team were able to get the two goals to tie the game.
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The opening stages of the game were even with neither side able to make a break through. The opening goal came in the 34th minute from a corner on the left hand side, the corner was taken by Luke Mulholland and was the goal was scored by Eric Detzel. It was not long before Reading Utd were able to score their second - CJ Sapong scored an individual effort attacking down the right wing taking on two players and firing past Tunde Ogunbiyi in the Ocean City net.
However between the two goals Ocean City looked lively down the left hand side with Neal Melchionni and Kevin Curran combining to create a chance for forward Byron Carmichael. Carmichael’s effort from 4 yards was smartly saved by Reading Utd’s keeper Jeremy Vuolo.
The teams came out for the second half with Ocean City making 2 attacking changes Terry Gibbs and Junior Chapman replacing Giancarlo Granese and Neal Melchionni respectively. Ocean City started the half postively and applied pressure early.
The half time team talk from Head Coach Neil Holloway and his assistant Dan Ortiz was taking an obvious effect as the Nor’easters continued to dominate the second half of the game. Further changes were made with Kyle Miller coming in for Byron Carmichael on the 53rd minute and Dan Braun replacing William Swetra on the 60th minute.
The 64th minute saw the final change for the Nor’easters with Alex Weidman replacing Sal Pistone. This saw Ocean City apply an all out attack style of play which proved to be very successful.
That 2-0 lead would not hold as the Nor’easters applied further pressure which resulted in Reading Utd conceding a throw in deep inside their own half. Ryan Richter was aware of the run of captain John Fletcher and provided the central defender a quick throw which he despatched past the keepr from 25yards. This goal increased the pressure and forced Reading to make even more mistakes.
An 82nd minute corner from Ocean City was cleared, but only to Max Hamilton who composed himself to pick out a pass to Kevin Strunk who drilled a low hard shot to equalise the game. With time running out there were still further chances for the Nor’easters to complete a remarkable comeback. The most notable chance fell to Junior Chapman in the 90th minute who went through 1 on 1 only to be denied by keeper Jeremy Vuolo.
Ocean City Nor’easters will be in action again Saturday, June 26 when they host the Central Jersey Spartans at Carey Stadium 7pm kick off. The fun begins at 6pm where you can come along and take part in some Boardwalk Soccer games inside Carey Stadium these include Soccer Stars Targets, Pepsi Ring Toss , and Speed Shot where you can test your shot against our very own PDL stars.