Marek Skotnicki followed in the footsteps of his older brothers, Konrad and Pawel, when he got involved with soccer in first grade.
While his brothers gave up the sport to play football instead at Lemont, Marek has stuck with it to become a four-year varsity standout.
“I just love the game and I love the atmosphere,” Skotnicki said. “Every time I’m on the field, I make sure I take a look around and see how beautiful our pitch is.
“My brothers got into football, but soccer was always the sport for me.”
Lemont was thankful for that Thursday as Skotnicki, a senior midfielder, scored both goals in a 2-0 South Suburban Blue victory over T.F. United in Lemont.
“Marek’s turned into one our more vocal guys, one of our leaders,” Lemont coach Rick Prangen said. “He’s our leading scorer right now as a defensive midfielder.
“He brings a lot of passion, desire and leadership to the field. He’s an important player for us.”
Amir Biba made three saves to record the shutout for Lemont (7-2-1, 3-1-1). Oswaldo Mendoza also made three saves for T.F. United (4-5-1, 1-2-1).
Skotnicki started the scoring in the 13th minute when he picked off a T.F. United clearing attempt and quickly fired a 35-yard shot into the top of the net.
His second goal came on a similar play 17 minutes later as he collected a loose ball on the right side of the field and ripped a perfectly placed 25-yard shot inside the far post.
“On the second goal, the ball was bouncing around,” Skotnicki said. “Their left back kind of fumbled it. I retrieved the ball, nobody was coming at me. I just shot it from right outside the box and it was an absolute screamer.”
They were the fifth and sixth goals of the season for Skotnicki, who is adding an important offensive punch while establishing himself as a strong defensive presence in the midfield.
Senior defender Ben Kittridge was impressed.
“It’s massive seeing Marek step up like that,” Kittridge said. “You never know when you’re going to get a day out of your forwards, and sometimes you need a midfielder to step up. He did that.”
Skotnicki’s success comes down to split-second decision making. He knows when to get aggressive and when to back off.
“This has been in the works for four years,” Skotnicki said. “I’ve been working on keeping my defensive responsibilities and then trying to push up. My conditioning is really important.
“It’s choosing my battles and knowing when to go up and when to stay back. It’s a really tough decision, but it’s got to be done. I think so far I’ve been doing good on that part.”
T.F. United tried to battle back in the second half but could not break through. Kevin Paulino, Avery Flores and Diego Gonzalez had shots on goal.
Lemont defenders Kittridge, Aidan Ontiveros, Luciano Mancini and Lucas Urban made life tough on the visitors.
“It just seems like we were bypassing our center mids for whatever reason,” T.F. United coach Alejandro Lagunas said. “We were playing it directly to our forwards and Lemont was just waiting to pick us off there. They have big, strong kids and our guys struggled with that.
“Lemont is a good team and they played a strong game.”
After a tie and a loss in its first two conference games, Lemont has won three in a row.
“We knew it wasn’t over,” Kittridge said. “We knew it was a long season. We just needed to get one win, and then it was a snowball from there.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
