Sunday, July 1, 2012
OCEAN CITY, N.J. -- The Ocean City Nor'easters maintained their lead in the PDL's Mid Atlantic Division as they took a 4-0 victory against the Bermuda Hogges on Sunday night at Carey Stadium. Playing a Hogges side that appeared tired playing in their fourth game in eight days, the Nor’easters took advantage and won their 10th game of the season, just the fourth team in the PDL to achieve that so far this season.
The game began with some expansive soccer that saw both sides have some very good chances. The Nor’easters finally began to take control after 15 minutes, with Jason Plumhoff’s delivery from wide free kicks and corners proving very dangerous as he created chances for Frank Tweneboa and Markhus Lacroix.
Ocean City really started to assert its dominance after Zoncher Dennis scored from close range in the 32nd minute after great work from Tweneboa down the left, who crossed it low and hard for the striker to get his sixth goal of the season. The Nor'easters doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Zimbabwean defender Tapiwa Machingauta capitalized on a goalkeeping mistake to poke the ball home from three yards.
The Nor'easters continued to find success out side in the second half as Kevin Curran overlapped with purpose and supplied Plumhoff for an easy finish. The game started to slow down but it was soon bought back to life as Nor'easters captain Terry Gibbs drove a powerful free kick with great accuracy into the top corner from 25 yards out leaving the Hogges goalkeeper stuck to his line in the 71st minute, capping the scoring. The heat of the day got to some of the players as the Bermuda Hogges defender Damon Ming got booked for kicking the ball into Junior Chapman after the foul had been called only for Chapman to react badly and see the referee's red card.
“It was great to get off to a good start today against a quality but tired Bermuda team who are at the end of their long road trip," Nor'easters coach Tim Oswald said. "The effort from our guys was great and the goals we scored were of excellent quality. It is a great feeling to be number two in the whole Eastern Conference but we are still hungry for more.”
The Nor’easters play again at home on Friday, July 6 and Sunday, July 8 against the New Jersey Rangers and the Westchester Flames respectively. Both games are set for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Carey Stadium. Keep up to date with all the news and information through our twitter (www.twitter.com/oceancityfc) or like our facebook page (www.facebook.com/oceancityfc).