Thursday, October 1, 2026
Lawrence quarterback Joe Capobianco couldn’t have scripted a better finish to his high school football playing days last Saturday at Stony Brook University’s LaValle Stadium, leading the Golden Tornadoes to a 41-32 victory over Huntington in the Long Island Class III championship game by throwing for 353 yards and three touchdowns, including the 100th of his record-setting career.
“After Sayville beat us on this same field two years ago, I made it a goal to win my last game,” said Capobianco, who hit Sam Locascio, Elijah Jones and Jordan Fredericks with touchdown passes in the first half to help Lawrence build a 34-18 lead. “Getting to 100 [touchdowns] is icing on the cake,” he added. “I owe thanks to all the great receivers and linemen I’ve had over the years, and a great coaching staff.”
The Golden Tornadoes (11-1), who won their second straight L.I. title, and third in eight years, didn’t score an offensive touchdown in the second half and were held to 79 yards after ripping off 401 in the first half. However, their defense came up huge with 6:37 remaining to put the Blue Devils (8-4) in a 41-26 hole when Mike Spinelli caused a fumble and Sean Moran pounced on it in the end zone.
“Winning back-to-back Long Island championships is extremely difficult,” Lawrence head coach Joe Martillotti said. “It’s awesome.
“We had a hiccup early in the season against Plainedge, but we’ve had a bunch of years like that lately where we used a loss to make some adjustments and get refocused,” he added.
Huntington was led by its backfield tandem of Levar Butts (133 yards, three touchdowns) and Troy Greene (131, 1.) Butts also managed 15 tackles and 1.5 sacks on defense.
“We thought we could do a lot of things on offense with Joey throwing and Jordan running,” Martillotti said. “Defensively, we stepped up in the second half.”
The Golden Tornadoes, who beat Plainedge, 28-27, the previous Saturday at Hofstra on Daniel Reiskin’s 27-yard field goal as time expired to win their fourth Nassau County title in five years, never trailed on the way to becoming the first team to repeat in Class III since Bethpage in 2003.
Capobianco & Co. needed just 3:18 to build a 14-0 lead. Lawrence drove 59 yards on six plays on the game’s opening possession, capped by Locascio’s 14-yard touchdown grab. After Jones recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff in Blue Devils territory, he made a leaping catch on a deep ball along the sideline for a 45-yard gain to set up a 5-yard score by Fredericks (173 total yards, three touchdowns.)
“I’ve been catching passes from Joey for a long time,” said Jones, who had 189 yards on four receptions. “He knows exactly where the receivers are going to be.”
Touchdowns by Greene and Butts brought Huntington within 14-12, but the Capobianco-to-Jones connection struck again. Jones’ 82-yard touchdown reception put Lawrence back in front by two scores — 21-12 — and his quarterback within one of the coveted century mark.
No. 100 came with 3:31 remaining in the half, when on fourth-and-13 from the Blue Devils 22, Fredericks took a screen pass from Capobianco and weaved his way into the end zone untouched for a 27-12 lead. “I wanted to be a part of him getting to 100,” Fredericks said.
Lawrence’s 34-18 halftime lead was cut in half early in the third quarter when Butts raced 44 yards for a touchdown and Greene added the two-point conversion.
It was 34-26 in the fourth when a Capobianco punt pinned Huntington at its own 10, setting the stage for the defense to earn a piece of the spotlight. On first down, Spinelli stripped the ball from Greene and it rolled into the end zone where Moran recovered it to essentially seal the victory.
“Personal records mean nothing when you lose,” Capobianco said. “Winning comes first.”
