KENLY - Smithfield-Selma decided to put the forgettable 2007 soccer season behind it early on in 2008. The Spartans, who went winless in 21 matches last season, scored twice in the final six minutes of play to top host North Johnston 3-2 Monday night.

Clayton also advanced to Wednesday’s semifinals of the 2008 Herald Cup with an 11-0 win over Johnston Christian.

The Comets meet defending event champion West Johnston at 4:30 p.m., while Smithfield-Selma and South Johnston meet at 6:15. Both games will be played at North Johnston High School.

North Johnston, which beat SSS in last year's Cup, took a 2-1 lead against the Spartans on an early second-half goal from Mauricio Cortes, who sent a shot into the net after a long pass from teammate Gilberto Santos.

SSS started to build its offensive momentum from that point on and got a break when an intentional handball on a long pass to Eric Pimentel resulted in a straight red card for Santos.

It took the Spartans six minutes to take advantage. Elvin Quardad ran the SSS hit post count to three on his next shot attempt but the rebound went to teammate Eric Pimentel who pulled SSS even.

"If we don't play down a man, I think we win the match," said North Johnston coach Brent Walston. "We were playing well but when we lost Gilberto it changed our defense and even though we dropped a forward we just couldn't recover."

A minute later, Kegan Turner worked his way open on the flank and gave SSS its first lead since 1-0 with 5:04 to play.

"We've still got a long way to go but its nice to start things off with a win," said first-year Spartans' coach Kristian Stewart. "We had some mental breakdowns but I was pleasantly surprised with some of our individual talent tonight. We gave some guys a chance that we didn't know how they’d react and those guys stepped up."

SSS took a 1-0 lead 11 minutes in when Pimentel found a breaking Elvin Quardad who touched the ball around the goalie and punched home an easy goal.

North tied the match with 22:48 to play in the first half when Travis Phipps chipped a ball in front of the goal that Cortes was able to drill home.

The Panthers played without Rey Reynoso, one if their top offensive threats, who is out for probably another week (according to Walston) with a muscle pull.

Hunter Crocker and Matthew Gutowski both scored twice for Clayton in its win, who also won for the first time this season, moving to 1-2-1.

Connor Jones had two assists and a goal; Greg Oliver also assisted on two goals.