Thursday, July 4, 2013
OCEAN CITY, N.J. -- The Ocean City Nor’easters welcomed their supporters to join them on the Fourth of July to celebrate the independence of a nation, and celebrate they did. A 2-0 victory over in-state rivals NJ LUSO Rangers put everyone in great spirits for the fireworks just yards away on the Ocean City Boardwalk.
The Nor’easters are set to play the Rangers twice in four days as the playoff picture becomes clearer. Ocean City Nor’easters opened the scoring early as Timothy Mulgrew drilled a direct free kick up and over the wall to beat the keeper low against the post in the fourth minute. Ocean City went on to take control of the first half even though it began to fizzle out towards the end of the first 45 minutes. The first half saw some of the Nor’easters best “possession with purpose” that they have been focusing on all season.
The second half didn’t start with a bang but the Nor’easters took control and scored again on 52 minutes through attacking right back Sean McLaws, who followed in a Zoncher Dennis shot that the Rangers goalkeeper Paul Killian parried towards him. Ocean City survived some scares with Michael O’Keeffe, a New Zealand Olympian from the 2012 London Games, looking confident and allowing Ocean City to use all their allotted substitutions and get the fringe players some good minutes.
"We needed a win to keep our momentum going and a clean sheet for O’Keeffe was vital," said Nor'easters coach Tim Oswald. "Hopefully our performance will be better on Sunday but I would take the same result.”
The game finished 2-0 and the supporters made the short walk up onto the Ocean City Boardwalk for an outstanding firework display. Independence Day is a great day in Ocean City, and it looks like the Nor’easters organization will become a big part of that and coming to see the game before the fireworks will become the new July Fourth tradition in town.