Lawrence Football Gearing Up for Another Chance at Title

The Lawrence football team ended their 2010 playoff run with an 8-3 overall record and a 39-14 to Lynbrook in the Nassau County Finals, just weeks after defeating them in the regular season.

After being ranked atop the preseason polls in Class C, the Golden Tornadoes look to be primed to take its season a step further in 2011.

“The strength of our team was in our young players last year, so I am stressing the importance of leadership from those kids this year,” said second-year head coach Joe Martilotti. “We had a bit of a lack of senior leadership last year, and those guys will step up to lead now.”

Lawrence will be led on offense by All-State running back senior Ryan Fredericks. Fredericks, who will pair with brother Tyler in the backfield, recorded 15 touchdowns and over 1,500 yards on the ground last season.

“I think we are going to do pretty well this season. There are a lot of good teams out there for us to play,” Fredericks said. “We plan to go all the way. Hopefully we can go undefeated, take one game at a time and see where it goes from there.”

Senior Chris Hercules will be looked at to lead the teams’ defense after an All-State junior season, which included 96 tackles, two interceptions and eight sacks at middle linebacker. He will also double as a tight end on offense.

“We have a good mentality about where we should be, how we should work and where we stand in the conference,” Hercules said. “We shouldn’t lose this year. Our defense is strong, our offense should put up points. We should win it all and that is what we are going for.”

Junior defensive end Jake Bernstein and junior defensive lineman John Perrone will also help lead Lawrence's defense, a unit that returns seven starters from last season.

“Defensively, this is probably the fastest we’ve been in years, which is really important for what we want to do," Martilotti said. "We are running and hitting and I can’t say enough about it so far."

Sophomore quarterback Joey Capabianco, who was the JV starter in 2010, will step into the starting role after being called up and seeing some action in the playoffs.

Lawrence starts its season with two home games against Manhasset (9/10) and Bethpage (9/16), followed by the team's first road game against Hewlett (9/24). The Golden Tornadoes will also match-up against Glen Cove (9/30), Plainedge (10/6) and Floral Park (10/15) before wrapping up the regular season schedule against Lynbrook (10/22) at home and Sewanhaka (10/29) on the road.