For the 57th time in USL League Two history, the Ocean City Nor’easters (6-0-3, 21 points) hosted Reading United AC (2-2-6, 12 points) on Saturday night from Carey Stadium. These two teams started to play each other dating back to 1997. Ocean City leads the all-time series 24-22-10.
The Nor’easters came into this game with a 23-game unbeaten regular season streak. The last regular season loss for the Nor’easters came on July 9th, 2021 against West Chester United SC. The last time Ocean City lost to Reading was on June 15th, 2019.
There was a lot of back-and-forth action in the first 24 minutes of the game. In the 26th minute, Reading almost took the lead but Stefano Camerlengo made the save. Both teams had some opportunities. However, the game remained scoreless at halftime.
In the second half, Sander Roed made an acrobatic shot off of a cross inside the box but it sailed high over the net. Shortly after, the game was marred by a two-hour lightning delay in the second half. When the game resumed, Reading jumped out to a 1-0 lead by Shuma Sasaki.
It looked like Ocean City’s regular season unbeaten streak was coming to an end until Nick Pariano scored a penalty kick in the final seconds. It was Pariano’s second goal of the season. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. With the draw, the Nor’easters extend their regular season unbeaten streak to 24 games, 20 of them on the road.
In addition, Ocean City has an eight-game unbeaten streak against Reading (4-0-4). They are now four points ahead of West Chester United SC for first place in the Mid-Atlantic Division.
Ocean City visits Kildare’s Field next Tuesday against West Chester United SC at 7:30 pm on Eleven Sports. Tickets for all Ocean City home games can be purchased at OceanCityFC.com.
