Losing the match to Southern Methodist wasn’t the only agony NIU soccer coach Willy Roy went through here yesterday.

SMU, ranked No. 11 in the nation, handed the Huskies their second loss of the year 2-0. But the real battle for Roy took place against referee Richard Segoviac.

Roy has had problems with this referee before.

“He reffed our match at (Southern Illinois-Edwardsville) a year ago,” Roy said.

“He was terrible. The Eastern (Illinois) coach promised me that (Segoviac) would not be here, but he was.”

EIU coach Cizo Mosnia said he was promised by referee chairman Bobby Mann that Segoviac would not be assigned to NIU’s match.

Segoviac had a big impact on the match. SMU forward Alan Prampin, who appeared to be offsides, scored the first goal of the match with four minutes left in the first half. Prampin scored from in front of the goal after receiving a cross pass from the left side.

Markus yelled, “off sides,” but to no avail.

“(Segoviac) called offsides, he pointed to the place where he was offsides,” Markus said.

After a brief discussion with the linesman, who happens to be his son, Segoviac allowed the goal.

“I’m not upset at my guys at all,” Roy said. “We didn’t lose because of lack of effort.”

NIU (4-2-1) beat S.W. Missouri State 2-1 Friday.

The game ball Sunday for NIU belongs to Markus, literally. SMU got off 15 shots on goal, but Markus batted away 13 which included three one-on-one opportunities.

“We knew they had three quick forwards,” Markus said. “We knew we had to play a defensive game. We just didn’t get the breaks.”

SMU’s second goal, which was more legitimate, came with 20:08 left in the match.

“I thought on the goals (SMU) scored,” Roy continued, “we had the situation in hand. But we just made mistakes.”