Brenner chips in for Garnet Valley victory dedicated to dad

CONCORD — Garnet Valley sported baby blue T-shirts Thursday with the famous #10VE insignia in honor of the late Kip Taviano, who lived in the school district and was an exceptional lacrosse player at The Haverford School.

On the back, in big white letters are the initials ‘A.B.’ in dedication to the father of Liv Brenner, the Jags’ junior attack. Andrew Brenner passed away unexpectedly in April.

Each day since Mr. Brenner’s passing, senior defender Grace Brennan and her GV teammates have shown their love to Liv and supported their friend during these trying times.

“On the back of our shirts today we’re wearing ‘A.B.’ which is in honor of Andrew Brenner, who is a motivation for us all,” Brennan said. “Personally, I use it every game, thinking of her and playing for her father. Every game, the entire team does it and we’re all coming together for this one player and it’s really sweet.”

What better way to salute Mr. Brenner than with a 17-6 victory over No. 18 North Penn in the second round of the District 1 Class 3A tournament. The second-seeded Jags will play No. 7 Downingtown East in the quarterfinal round next week.

Liv Brenner chipped in with a goal and three assists against the Knights.

“We all wanted to make up these shirts, it’s a really sweet story and it means a lot to everyone,” Brennan said. “It’s a big motivation for the team, to play for him and for Liv.”

The Jags were off and running in their first game action in nearly 10 days. If they were rusty, they hardly showed it as they scored nine of the game’s first 10 goals. The Nealon twins, Kara and Reagan, were major factors in the early minutes. Kara assisted on Reagan’s first two goals and Kara found the back of the net for the first time with 13:05 left in the first half to put GV ahead, 7-1.

Kara Nealon, Reagan Nealon and Kathyn Toohey led the Garnet Valley attack with four goals apiece. Caroline Shaefer tossed in a hat trick and an assist.

“The biggest thing for us was to get out to a fast start and get the other team on their heels. If we get out fast and above them, we’re already in their heads,” Kara Nealon said. “We wanted to come out and play how we ended our regular season, keeping the energy up the whole time.”

Outside of the Jags’ ability to crash the net and score at will, the most impressive aspect of Thursday’s game was the team defense. Brennan, Lauren Bendo, Devin Taulane and Bridget Godfrey all were excellent at limiting North Penn’s scoring chances. They swarmed to the ball carrier to cause turnovers and disrupt shots.

“The past couple of weeks, I think our defense has been the best that I’ve seen them play all season, if not the best Garnet Valley defense I’ve seen maybe in my seven years,” said GV coach Jenny Purvis, who has guided the Jags to three PIAA championships. “They’re just so smart and they work really well together. It really doesn’t make a difference if you have a couple of D-1 defenders if you can’t put it together with all seven. They’ve been really working on making those adjustments and our defense is playing the best I’ve seen.”

Brennan notched three caused turnovers and Taulane came away with one.

“We’re all really close and, before the season, we worked out all the time together to prepare for this year,” Brennan said. “I think the defense is more of a close unit than we’ve ever been before. We all communicate so well and in practice we spend a lot time just going over to the side and talking about what we can do better and, really, how tight we are is what makes us stronger.”

Of course, a defense cannot be effective without a good goalkeeper, and sophomore Sierra McLaughlin has continued to impress in her first full season as a varsity starter. She finished with eight saves against North Penn.

“We love when our defense makes big plays. It’s more of an energy boost than a goal sometimes,” Kara Nealon said. “From the beginning of the season, (McLaughlin) has done really well. In the beginning, there were three goalies who were fighting for that one spot, but ever since she got it she’s been killing it. She doesn’t play like a sophomore … and she’s saved us a lot of times in a lot of games.”

Kara Nealon scored with 59 seconds left in the first half to give the Jags a cozy 11-3 advantage at intermission. North Penn didn’t quit, though. Ali Lindsay registered back-to-back goals to trim the deficit to 11-5, but the Nealon sisters answered with back-to-back tallies to make it 13-5. The Jags scored four of the game’s final five goals, including one by Brenner with 4:43 left.

Madi McKee registered her 400th draw control win. She had eight draw controls and three helpers. The La Salle-bound senior draw specialist/attack made her presence felt by dominating the circle, positioning herself in front of the net and setting her teammates up for goals.

“Not only does she have the skill on attack, obviously, but the draw controls … that possession and possession is lacrosse. That, alone, makes the biggest difference,” Purvis said. “I kind of think of it as, every draw control is sort of like an assist to me because you’re the reason we got possession to even score there. Her presence on attack just makes it a focus for their defense, too. They have to key in on her because of her size, her skill level, and that opens up a lot of opportunities.”

Lindsay scored three goals and Lily Szilogyi added a pair in a season-ending defeat for North Penn.