Travis Pitzonka leaves Lancaster for St. Francis College

by Mike Pidanick, Metro Source

As Travis Pitzonka leaves Lancaster for St. Francis College, he sees opportunity as he heads to the next level.

“I’m looking forward to that,” he said. “They run a 3-4 defense and all four of their linebackers from this past season graduated. So everything is wide open.

“I’m going to come in and work hard and earn my spot.

And when Pitzonka says he’s going to work hard, he means it. Last summer, he was one of Lancaster’s Iron Man Award winners based on offseason workouts. That effort paid off when the games started to count for real as Pitzonka, a 6-foot, 215-pound linebacker, had an outstanding senior season for the Redskins.

He collected 103 tackles and won the Tomahawk Award as the team’s hardest hitter. He also earned Class AA South 1st Team honors.

He hopes to play as soon as he can at St. Francis, a Division I Football Championship Subdivision program located in Loretto, Pa. The Red Flash are coming off a disappointing 1-10 season and Pitzonka hopes to be part of the solution.

“I can’t wait to get down there and get to work,” he said.

Before he departs, Pitzonka had one last chance to show Western New York what he can do. He earned Defensive Player of the Game honors for the South team in a 28-20 victory in the the 36th annual Kensington Lions Club’s All-Star High School Football Classic.

“I had a great time being part of this game,” said Pitzonka, who had nine tackles and an interception. “It was great to play again with two of my teammates, Jeremiah Luderman and Austin Bauer - it was fun to play with them for a game, and I got to meet a couple of new friends, too. It was a great time.”