TOWSON, Md. -- The Elizabethtown College men's soccer team placed six Blue Jays on the Landmark All-Conference teams, announced by the league Wednesday afternoon. It is the most all-conference honorees for Etown since 2018 and the fourth time since joining the conference that the Blue Jays had multiple major award winners. Ed Rainey was named the Defensive Player of the Year and Thomas Smith was named the Rookie of the Year.

Rainey ends his Elizabethtown career as a four-time all-conference selection, including his third on the First Team. The major award is the first of his career as he helped anchor a defensive unit that ranked 38th across Division III in goals against average (0.78). The Blue Jays also had eight shutouts during the season. Rainey is the fourth different Blue Jay to be named the Landmark Defensive Player of the Year.

The graduate student also set career highs offensively with three goals and three assists (nine points). He had a season-high three points, a goal and an assist, in Elizabethtown's 5-0 rout of Mount Aloysius at Ira R. Herr Field.

Joining Rainey on the First Team was goalie Kelvin Del Cid, who had career bests in goals against average (0.79) and shutouts (7). Del Cid tied for first in shutouts and ranked second in the conference in GAA and saves (49). Four of his seven shutouts came during the team's nine-game unbeaten streak that ran from September 24 to October 22.

Del Cid made three consecutive saves in a penalty kick shootout to help Etown outlast Goucher to advance to the Landmark Conference Championship. His GAA ranked him 48th in Division III while his shutout total tied him for 26th.

Pedro Guizardi had another standout year in the midfield for the Blue Jays and was awarded with a spot on the First Team for the first time in his career. He was a Second Team selection a season ago. Guizardi led the team in shots and was sixth in the conference in the same category. 

Guizardi had three goals for the second consecutive season to tie a career-high.

His midfield mate, Mehluko Letsoalo, drew a spot on the Second Team for the Jays. Luka earned his second consecutive all-conference nod after a season of two goals, one assist, and a lot of grunt work in the midfield.

Letsoalo netted a penalty kick goal, the game-winning goal, at Immaculata on October 5. He also scored the lone goal for Etown in a 1-1 draw at Moravian two weeks later. He set up Ryan Hepler's game-winning goal at Scranton on October 8, where the Blue Jays escaped with a 2-1 win over the Royals.

The two goals were a career-best and his five points tied his career-high.

Hepler ranked sixth in the Landmark with three game-winning goals and was second on the team in goals (4) and points (10). The senior got off to a fast start this season with two goals in his first three games. Hepler scored in consecutive games of the Brothers Pizza Blue Jay Classic in early September, first with a goal against Eastern Mennonite before producing the game-winner against Mount Aloysius the following day. His goal against EMU came from the penalty spot.

This is Hepler's second straight appearance on the Second Team.

Smith's partnership alongside Rainey at the back made the Blue Jays a tough team to score on. Elizabethtown conceded more than one goal only three times in 2022 to go along with the eight shutouts. As a team, the Jays surrendered just 15 goals all season, in 19 games, to tie for the fewest given up among Landmark Conference teams. Etown ranked first in goals against average.

Trying to go over top and down the middle did not work on Elizabethtown, as Smith towered over his marks, winning in the air on a consistent basis. Though he did not record any points, Smith provided a tall body on set piece opportunities in the attacking third. He had a season-high three shots at Lebanon Valley on September 28.

Smith was named to the Second Team, but was also named the Landmark Rookie of the Year, the first for Elizabethtown since Gilbert Waso in 2015.