Clayton barely avoided the latter part of that statement Monday night, coming from behind to defeat archrival Smithfield-Selma, in a physical, 4-1 overtime boys soccer tussle.

A trio of overtime goals provided the misleading final margin in a match that was marred by 42 fouls, 21 by both teams, and eight yellow cards, seven of those handed out to the Spartans for rough play.

"It was hard-fought game," said Comets coach Tom Gruhalla. "I don't think our boys were out-physicalled tonight; they went out strong and made sure they kept their composure.

"Our boys are accustomed this type of play, and I'm happy they're not afraid to challenge. Even when it got real ugly, we still tackled correctly ... that was important."

The winning goal, off a free kick by Ryan Killane, was set up by one of those fouls during a skirmish for possession of the ball at the top right corner of the 18-yard box.

That call came two minutes into the first of the two ten-minute overtime periods. Killane launched a line drive shot over SSS's defensive wall and just past Spartans goalkeeper Alex Arey for the 2-1 lead.

Deflated and running on fumes, the Spartans could not counter, and surrendered a pair of goals late in the second overtime period for the final margin.

Greg Oliver notched the first insurance goal on a corner kick, as he headed in a corner kick by Jeremy Shapiro. David Lopez provided the final tally, with a blast from the top of the box on a feed from Alex Cruz.

But the Comets, who improved to 8-3-1 overall and 5-1 in the Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference, saw their regular-season title hopes hanging by a precarious thread for almost 60 minutes. That thread developed when the Spartans stunned the Comets on a give-and-go goal by James Miller, then used hard-nosed defense, led by Arey, to turn back the Comets time after time.

Miller's goal, a 10-yard blast past Comets keeper Boomer Gunter, came 6:12 into the match.

After winning the ball at midfield, Miller and Luis Zeron worked the ball up the left side of the field into the Comets' defensive third.

As the tandem reached the box, Zeron sent a pass to Miller in the middle, who juked a Comets defender and pushed his shot by a surprised Gunter.

"That goal kind of surprised us, caught us off-guard," Gruhalla said. "But thankfully our keeper kept us in the game."

Gunter redeemed himself with a save off a blast by Rico Bryant, a stop that probably saved the Comets' bacon, according to Gruhalla.

"He bailed us out," Gruhalla said. "It could have easily been 2-0 at halftime. They came out strong, and gave us everything we could handle tonight."

The loss dropped Smithfield-Selma to 1-5 in the league (3-7 overall), not the best of mark, but one that is a bit misleading after a handful of GNRC matches that didn’t go their way

"We showed everyone tonight that we're in the mix," said Spartans coach Kristian Stewart. "I told them in the beginning of the season, it would take this team a little while, but by mid-season we would be right there and we are, we're there."

Out-shot 32-8 for the match, including 22-4 in the second half and overtime, the Spartans relied on their defense to thwart the Comets.

And even though Corey Coats' goal knotted the match in the 58th minute, the Spartans' defense constantly denied Clayton a run-away victory until the latter minutes of overtime.

Coats scored when he took a pass from Jonathan Hilburn, charged up the middle of the field, and with Cullen Harper draped all over him, beat Arey with the leveling goal.

Arey was responsible for part of the defensive showing, garnering 11 saves, including stops on penalty kicks by Oliver in the first half and Killane in the first overtime period.

"He (Arey) was so focused," Stewart said. "He made some key saves and kept us with a positive attitude through the entire match."

Stewart beamed over the entire effort of the team.

"We played well," Stewart said, "And I think there were some calls that kind of hurt us, but the kids continued to play on and stayed focused into overtime.

"I'm very proud of their performance tonight."