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Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse gets past Navy, 12-10, thanks in part to ground ball advantage

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Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse gets past Navy, 12-10, thanks in part to ground ball advantage


A quick glance at the final box score from the Loyola Maryland at Navy men’s lacrosse game might lead one to think the home team had a slight advantage.

The Midshipmen outshot the Greyhounds (45-41) and finished with a slight edge on faceoffs (14-12). Meanwhile, the goalie saves (12-12) and turnovers (17-17) were even.

Upon closer inspection, the one statistic that was glaring and played a huge factor in the outcome was ground balls. The Greyhounds beat the Mids, 39-30, in that category, which was somewhat surprising and extremely meaningful.

“I felt like they won most of the 50-50 ground balls tonight,” Navy coach Joe Amplo said. “I think we’re good when the ball’s on the ground, but they were better than us tonight.”

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Ground balls translate into extra possessions and that was the deciding factor for Loyola, which beat Navy, 12-10, behind a balanced attack led by graduate student midfielders Adam Poitras and Evan James.

James and Poitras both finished with three goals and an assist as the Greyhounds jumped out to an early lead and controlled the game the rest of the way. Sophomore attackman Matthew Minicus totaled two goals and an assist for Loyola (7-6, 5-2 Patriot League), which has won three straight games against conference opponents.

Loyola coach Charlie Toomey knows the Midshipmen have always taken pride in winning the ground ball battle. Navy’s goal in every game is to gobble up 40 grounders, matching the uniform number of revered former defenseman Brendan Looney, a Marine Corps officer who was killed in action in September 2010.

“I know down here they call getting 40 ground balls a Looney,” said Toomey, who was once an assistant at Navy. “We knew we would have to match that intensity that they were going to bring to [that area]. When I look at the stat sheet I’m like ‘wow’ — 39 ground balls. I think we did a good job of fighting and scrapping for those 50-50 grounders.”

Toomey reserved special praise for Poitras, who led Loyola with eight ground balls. One of those came when he collected a rebound on the crease and scored. Several others came in the offensive end and extended possessions.

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“You don’t see an attackman with eight ground balls. That’s an amazing stat. He just battled,” Toomey said.

Meanwhile, Navy’s slight edge on faceoffs was somewhat deceiving and proved another key factor in the contest. Freshman Zach Hayashi ranks second in the Patriot League in faceoff winning percentage, while Loyola has struggled all season with winning draws.

On Friday night, freshman Carson Hall made Loyola competitive in that department. As Amplo pointed out afterward, not all of the Midshipmen’s 14 faceoff wins resulted in possessions as they committed several turnovers before getting the ball into the box.

Loyola at Navy men’s lacrosse | PHOTOS

Hall won 4 of 6 faceoffs in the first quarter and that was a big reason why Loyola jumped out to a 4-1 lead with Poitras scoring two goals and graduate student attackman Joey Kamish dishing off two assists.

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“When we win faceoffs, we’re a dangerous team,” Toomey said. “When we have the ball, we’re going to give ourselves a chance. Carson gave us a great chance tonight.”

Amplo agreed that falling behind in the first quarter and having to play catch up the rest of the way put Navy behind the eight ball.

“They were really sharp early on offense and we expected that,” Amplo said. “Watching them on film, they’re excellent. I think they’re one of the best offensive teams we’ve seen. They’re old and have some guys that have seemingly been around forever and they play well together. I thought we were chasing the game the whole night.”

Navy fell behind 7-2 last Saturday against Army and Amplo said the slow starts have to stop.

“Going down early seems to be the thing we do right now. That first quarter is what we need to figure out. After 4-1, it’s a heck of a lacrosse game,” he said.

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Senior attackman Jon Jarosz scored four goals to lead Navy (7-6, 4-3), which twice rallied from three-goal deficits to get within one. Last time came early in the third period when sophomore midfielder Paul Garza made a spectacular individual move and scored off a one-armed slingshot to make it 7-6.

Jarosz has now scored nine goals in the last three games since returning from an injury that forced him to miss five games.

“The plan was to put the ball in [Jarosz’s] stick and he had a heck of a night. He was unguardable at times. He probably thinks he could have [scored] a couple more,” Amplo said.

The Mids could not sustain the momentum and the Greyhounds promptly used a 4-1 run to take their largest lead of the game, 11-7, with 3:45 remaining in the third quarter.

“I just told the team I didn’t think we deserved to win throughout the game. I thought our heart showed, but Loyola certainly outplayed us tonight and deserved to win,” Amplo said.

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Toomey also highlighted senior goalie Luke Staudt, who returned after missing two games with a concussion and recorded 12 saves.

While the loss before an announced crowd of 2,251 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium was disappointing, the Midshipmen did get some good news. Army beat Bucknell, which clinched a berth in the Patriot League Tournament for Navy.

“It’s great knowing we have more time with these guys and we have a chance to play another meaningful game,” Amplo said. “The truth is that we need to continue to improve because there’s a better game out there for us. Our guys have to rise to the occasion.”


Loyola (7-6, 5-2)  4-3-4-1=12

Navy   (7-6, 4-3)   1-4-3-2=10

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GOALS: L — Poitras 3, James 3, Minicus 2, Binney 2, Kamish, Heuston. N — Jarosz 4, Arline, Tolker, Connolly, Conway, Peters, Garza. ASSISTS: L — Kamish 2, Lindsey 2, James, Minicus, Poitras, Sally. N — Arline, Hewitt, Marsh. SHOTS: L — 41. N — 45. SAVES: L — Staudt 12. N — Daly 12. FACEOFFS: L — 12. N — 14. GROUND BALLS: L — 39. N — 30.

 



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Maryland officials release a timeline and cost estimate for rebuilding Baltimore bridge

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Maryland officials release a timeline and cost estimate for rebuilding Baltimore bridge


ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland plans to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in just over four years at an estimated cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, a state transportation official said Thursday.

The state plans to build a new span by fall of 2028, said David Broughton, a spokesperson for the Maryland Department of Transportation. He said the cost estimate is preliminary, and detailed engineering specifics have not been confirmed.

As salvage efforts continue, authorities also announced late Wednesday they had recovered the body of a fifth person who was missing after the bridge’s March 26 collapse, which shut down the port of Baltimore, one of the busiest ports in the country.

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Six members of a roadwork crew plunged to their deaths when a container ship lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns. The Key Bridge Response Unified Command announced that the victim found Wednesday was identified as Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, 49, of Glen Burnie, Maryland. All of the victims were Latino immigrants who came to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

“We continue to pray for Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, his family and all those who love him, acknowledging the anguish they have experienced since the Key Bridge collapsed,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement Thursday. “We pray for comfort, we pray for healing, and we pray for peace in knowing that their loved one has finally come home.”

Salvage teams found one of the missing construction vehicles Wednesday and notified the Maryland State Police, officials said. State police investigators and Maryland Transportation Authority Police officers and the FBI responded to the scene and recovered the body inside a red truck. The state police underwater recovery team and crime scene unit also assisted.

Meanwhile, the broker for the bridge’s insurance policy confirmed Thursday that a $350 million payout will be made to the state of Maryland in what is expected to be the first of many payouts related to the collapse.

Chubb, the company that insured the bridge, is preparing to make the $350 million payment, according to WTW, the broker. Douglas Menelly, a spokesperson for WTW, on Thursday confirmed plans for the payout, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. Chubb did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

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The Maryland Transportation Authority said Thursday that the state’s treasurer filed a claim on the day of the bridge’s collapse “against our $350 million property policy and put on notice our $150 million liability policy first tier carrier on behalf of MDTA.”

“We expect the full property policy to be paid very shortly,” the agency said in a news release.

Maryland transportation officials noted that the state’s estimates for the cost to rebuild the bridge are in line with similar projects of this scale and complexity. Federal funding, insurance proceeds and other reimbursements will bring a variety of resources toward the rebuild and recovery effort, the officials said, and the state is pursuing other recovery options to minimize net cost to taxpayers and toll customers.

The Dali container ship has been stationary amid the wreckage since the collapse, but crews plan to refloat and remove the ship, allowing more maritime traffic to resume through Baltimore’s port. Officials expect to have it removed by May 10, according to a Port of Baltimore news release.

Salvage and demolition crews were still working around the clock to clear wreckage from the collapse site. They’re now focused primarily on freeing the Dali from a massive steel span that came crashing down on the ship’s bow.

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That will allow the ship to be refloated and guided back into the Port of Baltimore. It will also allow most maritime traffic to resume through the busy East Coast port.

On Thursday morning, crews were preparing for a controlled demolition that will break down the largest remaining span and send it tumbling into the water. Then a massive hydraulic grabber will lift the resulting sections of steel onto barges.

The hydraulic grabber, which officials have called the largest in the country, was also in motion Thursday morning. Moving ever so slowly, the giant claw descended into the depths of the Patapsco River and emerged with a steel beam in its trusses. It was operating in tandem with the Chesapeake 1000, one of the largest cranes on the Eastern Seaboard.

___

Associated Press journalists Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, and Lea Skene in Baltimore, contributed to this report.

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Maryland Superintendent Announces Task Force to Assess Academic Achievement

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Maryland Superintendent Announces Task Force to Assess Academic Achievement



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Five days after the Maryland State Board of Education unanimously voted to appoint Carey Wright as the state’s permanent superintendent of schools, she held a news conference on Monday to announce the creation of a task force to assess academic achievement.

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Wright said members of this group will include local superintendents, principals and higher education representatives to provide recommendations on how to better assess how students are doing in the classroom. The group will be led by the Center for Assessment, a national education nonprofit that designs, implements and evaluates accountability systems to see how students are learning.

Part of this initiative stems from the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP), which measures a student’s proficiency in math, English and science.

The Maryland Report Card uses a rating system from one to five stars to measure overall school performance such as graduation rates, attendance and academic performance.

MCAP results are among the factors that determine the state’s report card and school star rating system.

Although 76% of Maryland schools received at least three out of five stars on the state’s report card released in December, only 47% of all students in third to eighth grades scored on a proficient level in English language arts. The percentage was even lower in math, at nearly 25% proficiency.

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“That’s doesn’t ring true,” Wright said. “You can’t have three quarters of your schools being rated as excellent, if you will, and then not seeing student achievement, almost commensurate with that.”

The task force, which will meet about twice a month, will begin its work Thursday and provide recommendations by December to the state Board of Education. Because this accountability system to assess student achievement is in state statute, any proposed changes would need to be done before the Maryland General Assembly convenes for its 90-day legislative session in January.

There’s also a plan to update the online report card to make it easier for parents, guardians and students to comprehend.

“The report card website needs to be a lot more accessible for folks to understand and be able to access data for their schools in their districts,” said Joshua Michael, vice president of the school board. “So delighted that Dr. Wright will be leading that portion of the accountability [measure].”

Wright, who will begin her tenure without the interim title July 1, said conversations “have to start now” on trying to diversify the state’s teacher workforce.

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That’s part of the priorities in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan, but some local school leaders have documented challenges in hiring and retaining qualified teachers, and even recruiting teachers of color.

Although Maryland is one of the most diverse states in the nation, a September 2023 report from The Century Foundation noted that 70% of the teachers in the state were white in 2022. In comparison, about 19% were Black and 4% were Latino.

The percentages of the student population at the time: About 40% white, 33% Black and 21% Latino.

Wright recalled a program in place while she was schools superintendent in Mississippi that she would like to replicate in Maryland.

During her nine-year tenure in Mississippi, which ended with her retirement in 2022, the state became the first in the nation to launch a state-run residency teacher program to fill teaching positions and lack of diverse teachers.

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“I think we need to do a better job of campaigning and outreach,” Wright said Monday about boosting Maryland’s teacher workforce. “It’s looking to see how we are helping districts recruit at specific areas. Children need to see somebody that looks like them standing in front of the classroom.”

This story was originally published in Maryland Matters.


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Maryland leads the nation for rate of migrant children

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Maryland leads the nation for rate of migrant children


Two Maryland ZIP codes are among the most common destinations in the United States for migrant children

Thousands of migrant children are coming to Maryland every year. One ZIP code in Southeast Baltimore saw an influx of nearly 1,800 migrant children from 2015 to 2023, among the most in the country over that time.

ZIP code 21224, home to parts of Canton, Brewers Hill and Greektown, saw more children from other countries — most of them in South America — than all but 13 other ZIP codes in the United States.

And it wasn’t even atop the list in Maryland.

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Another ZIP code, this one in Prince George’s County, ranked No. 2 in the nation. Across Maryland, tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children have arrived since 2015. They often end up in homes with distant relatives, or even strangers.

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It’s part of a surge over the last few years that thrust Maryland into the center of a national crisis surrounding migrant children. Between January 2015 and May 2023, more than 30,000 unaccompanied migrant children were placed in Maryland. That’s 49 children per 10,000 state residents.

No other state was even close.

Washington, D.C., was a distant second with 35 migrant children per 10,000 residents.

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Maryland saw a surge in these migrant children in 2021, along with much of the nation, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, obtained last year by The New York Times. HHS is responsible for placing migrant children with adult sponsors.

Sometimes, the children are reunited with their parents. But more and more of the migrant children coming to Maryland are placed with someone other than their mother or father. Often that means an aunt, uncle or other family member, the data shows. But sometimes it can be more distant relatives, or even a complete stranger.

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In 2015, more than two-thirds of the children who came to Maryland were placed with their parents. By 2023, that number had plummeted to 37%.

Like the nation as a whole, the vast majority of the children come to Maryland from one of three countries: Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

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Prior to the pandemic, more children came to Maryland from El Salvador, but since 2020, the number of children from Guatemala and Honduras has caught up. Now, more children come from Guatemala than any other country.

The children coming from Guatemala are much more likely to be placed with someone other than a parent. Just 41% of those children ended up with their parents, compared to 51% for Honduran children and 55% for those from El Salvador.

Within Maryland, Prince George’s County — the second-largest county by population in the state saw by far the most unaccompanied migrant children. Nearly 10,000 such children, around one-third of the state’s total, wound up in Prince George’s County.

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More than 3,200 children were sent to ZIP code 20783, near Adelphi, just outside of Washington, D.C. That’s the second-highest total for any ZIP code in the nation, second only to a part of Houston, Texas. About 60% of the people who live in 20783 are foreign-born, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. It is among the ZIP codes with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents in the nation.

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It’s not the only hot spot in Maryland. Another ZIP code, 21649 in eastern Maryland along the Delaware border, home to the small cities of Marydel and Templeville, was sixth in the nation for migrant children per capita. That ZIP code was home to just 2,200 people in 2022. It saw an influx of 137 migrant children over an eight-year period, a substantial increase for an area of that size.

In Anne Arundel County, the top ZIP code is 21225, which spans both Brooklyn Park in Anne Arundel and parts of south Baltimore City. About 61% of the population in that ZIP code lives in Anne Arundel. In Baltimore County, it was 21222 in Dundalk. In Howard County, it was 21045 in Columbia.

Maryland’s population has been essentially flat since 2020. The state would have lost people if not for international migration, according to Census data. The state has only added 3,000 people since the decennial census, but nearly 100,000 people have moved away to other states. International migration has offset those losses substantially, likely including many of the 15,000 migrant children who have moved here since 2020.

Ramsey Archibald is an award-winning data journalist originally from Birmingham, Alabama.

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