Lansdale / Lititz, PA — As 5-8 speedster and Pennsylvania native Cody Felton raced past defenders en route to scoring 10 goals during the 2005 Goshen College men’s soccer season, head coach Tavi Mounsithiraj was not immune to the invariable cheers for the freshman forward. The Leafs’ faithful quickly grew to love Felton’s relentless style of play and incredible endurance and speed — helping the sparkplug to the second highest goal total on the team behind then-sophomore Tony Janzen, who scored 14 times.

Fast-forward to August, 2006 and Mounsithiraj begins pre-season training in hopes of defending his team’s 2005 Mid-Central Conference Co-Championship.

He announced Friday that the squad will have three more players from Felton’s old stomping grounds to aid in that quest.

Going back to southeastern Pennsylvania, Mounsithiraj announced the signing of three standout prep players from that region on Friday, signing 2006 Warwick High School (Lititz, PA) graduate Nick Good and 2006 Christopher Dock High School (Lansdale, PA) graduates Jordan Delp and Reuben Stoltzfus to letters of intent, garnering a trio of state champion players and outstanding students in the process. Good, a midfielder who led his Warwick team to a 19-4-1 overall record and the Pennsylvania Class 3A state title in 2005, joins Delp and Stoltzfus, defenders who guided Christopher Dock to the Class 1A state championship, as highlights to a group of solid incoming freshmen that Mounsithiraj said he is ecstatic about.

“I couldn’t be happier with these three young men joining our program from Pennsylvania this fall,” Mounsithiraj said Friday. “All are very talented players that come from outstanding soccer backgrounds. You have to be talented to play on a state champion team, and these three athletes will bring much skill and talent to the pitch for the next four years for us. We really are excited about what they can bring not only to our soccer program, but our institution as a whole.”

Delp and Stoltzfus will reunite with their former teammate Felton, as the pair anchored a solid backfield for Christopher Dock helping the team to a 20-5-1 record in 2005. That team captured the vaunted “triple crown,” winning its league championship, district championship and then the Pennsylvania Class 1A State Championship. The state title came via a fitting 1-0 decision over Quaker Valley High School, as Dock’s defense was again in the spotlight — 16 of the squad’s 20 wins on the year were shutouts.

“Both Jordan and Reuben are very good one-v-one defenders and both are very good athletes,” said Matt Moyer, head varsity soccer coach at Christopher Dock. “They have the ability to shut down opponents when needed and they play hard every minute of every game and in training. Both pass the ball really well from the back and both have great speed. They are a big part of us winning the state title.”

Both Delp and Stoltzfus were named first-team all-conference following the 2005 season, with Stoltzfus claiming the Southeast Pennsylvania “Player of the Year” honor in Class 1A. Equally as impressive in the classroom — Delp finished with a cumulative 3.86 GPA in high school while Stoltzfus registered a 3.14 average — Mounsithiraj said Delp plans to major in English along with Bible & religion while Stotltzfus plans to study business.

Good, meanwhile, gives Goshen another stellar playmaker in the midfield, as Warwick took the state’s class 3A crown — the largest class in Pennsylvania — with a 1-0 win over West Chester Henderson High School. A two-year starter and three-year letterwinner with his high school squad, Good maintained a GPA of 3.88 throughout his prep tenure. Mounsithiraj said he plans to major in pre-engineering or pre-med once at Goshen.

“We are not only getting a solid player in Nick Good, we are getting a very intelligent kid,” Mounsithiraj said. “It is a truth in the game of soccer that you can be the best player on your team without ever scoring a goal. I found that to be true with Nick. He was by far one of the best players on his Warwick team, is very good with the ball and has a great first touch. He distributes passes really well and he is a very smart player.”

Good’s high school coach, Dale Stoltzfus, agreed.

“Nick was the most consistent player on our team,” Stoltzfus said. “He has great vision on the field with the ability to see two to three passes ahead of the play. Nick possesses great technical skills. He is a quarterback on the soccer field.”

With pre-season training officially beginning in just a few days, Mounsithiraj said he hopes his newcomers can add to a deep mix of talented, experienced veterans.

“We’re looking for players that can come in and compete at the top of the very tough MCC,” Mounsithiraj said, “and we feel that Jordan, Reuben and Nick can do that. Jordan and Reuben are great athletes with great speed. Nick is an extremely smart midfielder. All three will represent us well on and off the field.”