Preview by George Diamond

The Ocean City Nor’easters (9-1-0) start their two game homestand to close out the 2024 USL League Two regular season on Sunday in the friendly confines of the Beach House. The Nor'easters, who have already clinched the Mid-Atlantic Division title, will face off with long time rivals Reading United (4-3-2) who are on the outside of the playoff picture. United will need at least two wins from their final three games to have a chance to make the playoffs.

The game will kickoff at 7 p.m. at Carey Stadium ("The Beach House") in Ocean City, N.J., "America's Greatest Family Resort". Single-game tickets for Nor'easters home games can be purchased for $10 each. 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.

For fans unable to make it out to the Beach House, the Nor'easters are continuing to partner with BFA Sports Media to provide a live video stream through the digital streaming platform Sports Engine.

That stream can be found here: Ocean City Nor’easters vs Reading United.

BFA’s YouTube channel will also host the livestream: Alternate YouTube link.

There will be live updates provided on the Nor'easters' Twitter/X account and Instagram.

After suffering their first loss of the season, the Nor’easters bounced back with their best result of the year, a 4-0 shutout win against Philadelphia Lone Star, completing their sweep in this season’s series.

In doing so, the Nor’easters have now remained undefeated on the road for five straight years. Additionally, Agustin Resch (Seton Hall / Arata, Argentina) scored a pair of headers, which lifts him to leading scorer on the team. It is also the most goal by a defender in team history with five. Marc Bonnaire’s (West Virginia / Warrenton,VA) 3rd shutout saw his goals against average plummet to a miniscule 0.40 on 5 games. He also kept his personal record perfect at 5-0-0. 

Meanwhile, Reading’s last fixture, a draw with Real Central New Jersey, clinched a third straight Mid-Atlantic Division title for Ocean City on June 29. Despite Modou Faye’s opener, RCNJ found an equalizer through Luke Pompliano. The tie mathematically secured the division title for the Nor’easters and will send the Storm to the Round of 32 in the USL-2 playoffs.

The top two teams in the division advance to the postseason. As it stands, West Chester United remain in second on 20 points with one game left to play (they will match up with Ocean City in the final game of the regular season on July 13 at the Beach House). Reading occupy third place on 14 points, but with three games in hand (including Sunday's game vs. Ocean City), they can still knock WCU out.

Reading and the Nor’easters clashed earlier this season on June 8 at Alvernia University, with the Storm coming out 3-0 victors over 10-man Reading. Resch, Andrew Kitch (North Carolina / Medford, NJ), and Theo Da Silva (Univ. of Rio Grande / São Paulo, Brazil) were the goalscorers on the day while Nathanael Sallah (Nebraska-Omaha / Hamburg, Germany) earned the clean sheet between the sticks.

Watch the replay of that game here: Ocean City 3 - 0 Reading United

The Reading United - Ocean City rivalry is the oldest in the entire United Soccer Leagues. It stretches back to 1997, when both clubs were professional. To that end, Sunday's game will be the 59th all time meeting between the two sides. OCN leads the series 25-22-11 and they are unbeaten in the last nine meetings (5-0-4), which is tied for the longest unbeaten run in the rivalry's history.

A win would see the Nor'easters do 'the double' over Reading, after beating them in the reverse fixture at Alvernoa University. It would also achieve double digit wins in a season for just the second time in the past decade, the Storm having reached 11 in 2022, but not more than 9 since 2013.