Sophomore goalie Andy Iles earned 17 starts in his rookie season with the Red, splitting time between the pipes with Michael Garman ’11. The Ithaca native returns for his second year on East Hill as the team’s top net minder, starting in each of Cornell’s first five contests. 

While head coach Mike Schafer ’86 was unwilling to name a starter in the preseason, he did admit that Iles’ play in the offseason made him a candidate for a breakout year.

“I saw Andy this summer at the world juniors, and he was unbelievable,” Schafer said. “I thought Andy was the best goalie in that camp by far. I don’t even think it was close. I think his game has been elevated since last year with that experience.”

Iles registered a 2.49 goals against average as a freshman, while saving just over 91 percent of the shots that came his way. Despite what appear to be impressive numbers, Iles left the ice in the final game of the season with an empty feeling after surrendering five goals in the ECAC championship game against Yale. The net minder was pulled after 28 minutes of work in favor of Garman, ending the 2010-11 campaign with a difficult loss at the hands of the Bulldogs, 6-0. 

“It was just one of those things where I sat down at the end of the year and was a little disappointed,” Iles said when asked to explain his summer success. “It was a tough ending [last season], but all I can do is use it as a learning experience because I still have three years here … I assessed what I needed to do to make strides in my game, to give my team a better chance to win games in the future.”

In five starts this season, Iles owns a 3.23 goals against average, limiting opponents to two scores in three of those contests. While Schafer has been impressed with Iles overall play, he knows that his top net minder still has room for improvement based on the sophomore’s play over the summer.

“I don’t think he’s played to the level that he wants to play at,” Schafer said of Iles. “In the games, the kinds of chances we’re giving up are point-blank chances … A couple of the goals that went in [from Yale and Brown] were through screens … We didn’t go down and block shots. We need to be sharper in front of him to give him the opportunity to block shots and see pucks in front.”

With Iles earning the majority of playing time in net, freshman Vince Marozzi and junior Omar Kanji have only seen minutes in the Red’s preseason exhibitions. Kanji, who did not dress for last weekend’s road trip to Harvard and Dartmouth, enters his third season on the roster; however, he has not seen any ice time with Cornell. 

Marozzi joined the Red late in the recruiting process after Garman opted to graduate a year early. The 6-0 net minder joins Cornell after leading the AJHL Spruce Grove Saints to consecutive league championships. The rookie dons No. 30 for the Red, just as former Saints goalie Ben Scrivens ’10 did in his four years at Cornell.