Joe Capobianco-to-Eddie Robinson sparks Lawrence
Lawrence High School quarterback Joe Capobianco throws a pass for a touchdown. (Nov. 16, 2012) Credit: James Escher
The Joe Capobianco-to-Eddie Robinson link goes way back. They've been friends since they were kids, baseball buddies who competed against each other when both were quarterbacks in junior high school. Eventually Eddie, a year older, switched to wide receiver. In this, his senior year, the connection has never been better for the Lawrence duo.
"He has a twin sister , but I feel like we have a twins' telepathy," Capobianco said of Robinson. "He knows where he's going and I know where he'll be."
Often, that location is the end zone. Capobianco threw five touchdown passes, three to Robinson, as top-seeded Lawrence crushed Valley Stream South, 62-7, Friday night in a Nassau III semifinal at Hofstra. The Golden Tornadoes (10-0) will try to win their second straight county championship when they face Plainedge at 4 p.m. Friday at Hofstra.
Records fell like autumn leaves on the turf at Shuart Stadium. Robinson's second TD catch of the game, a 9-yard grab with 10:31 left in the third quarter, gave him 18 for the season, breaking a tie with Commack's Bryan Tornee (2000) for the previous Long Island record of 17. Robinson now has 19 and counting.
Capobianco's final TD pass of the night, a 36-yarder to Robinson, was his 35th of 2012, breaking a tie with Oceanside's Tyler Heuer (2010) for the previous Nassau record of 34.
Capobianco, a junior, has 64 career TD passes, and it appears to be only a matter of time before he breaks the Long Island record of 73 set by Sayville's Steven Ferreira last season.
"Records are just add-ons. They come from playing well," Capobianco said. "The Long Island championship and Rutgers Cup are the only goals."
Robinson is similarly focused. "I'm just happy to get the records out of the way," he said. "It's all about the LIC."
Capobianco and Robinson began prepping for this season immediately after last year's Sayville game. "It's some connection. It's a love affair," Lawrence coach Joe Martillotti joked. "They were in the gym at 6 in the morning right after last season ended. Their chemistry is amazing."
Martillotti took the team to Florida last summer for a national 7-on-7 tournament. "We finished third,'' the coach said, "and the two of them were the talk of the event."
Now they are the talk of Long Island. Robinson is adept at improvising, though it wasn't necessary Friday night because the initial play-calls worked so well against the Falcons (6-4). "He breaks off routes and they'll freelance," Martillotti said. "He gets open in tight spots and he'll get the jump balls."
Friday night, Robinson caught eight passes for 208 yards, the latter also a Nassau playoff single-game record, erasing the mark of 193 set by East Rockaway's Sean Bohan in 2010. Capobianco totaled 311 yards, completing 13 of 17.
Both players sat out the fourth quarter, as did running back Tyler Fredericks, who had 159 of his 165 yards in the first half as he scored the Golden Tornadoes' first three touchdowns on 36-, 28- and 1-yard runs.
After that, Capobianco and Robinson took over. It was a high-speed connection.
