Nashua South's Jameson Mondale winds up for a shot while defended by Spaulding's Noah Crosby (9) during the Panthers' 7-0 Divison I prelim win Wednesday night at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The Nashua High School South boys soccer team kept up their end of the bargain.

And they barely had to break a sweat to do it.

Unlike the drama their rivals from North had to endure in their prelim, the No. 2, 14-3 Panthers cruised past No. 15 Spaulding 7-0 on Wednesday night at Stellos Stadium in their Divison I preliminary round contest. As a result, South will host Manchester Memorial on Sunday at 3:15 p.m. at Stellos in the quarterfinals.

And of course, if the Panthers and Titans – North takes on No. 6 Manchester Central at 1 p.m. both win, they see each other in a rematch of last year’s semifinals next Wednesday in Exeter.

“We’ve got some firepower, we can score goals,” Panther coach Tom Bellen said.

They showed that 10 seconds into the game when Panther Sammy Hadouche pounced on a Spaulding turnover right after the kickoff and easily scored, getting past embattled Red Raider keeper Corey Dawes (11 saves) for a tap in.

“That’s the third time this year we’ve done it,” Bellen said. “I’ve never done it before ever. That was just a defensive block it and get the goal. Good individual effort, but sometimes when you score that early, you let down a little bit.”

So South managed one other goal in the first half on a breakaway by sophomore Marcell Perry, but at halftime Bellen wasn’t happy.

“I challenged them at halftime, let’s make this an exciting game,” he said. “People like to watch us. I’m falling asleep watching this first half. Let’s go.”

Bellen and everyone woke up in the second half as Jadiel Bomfim scored three goals to go with an assist – his last tally literally coast to coast, taking a deflection/pass off a Spaulding corner kick and rushing the length of the field.

“Changes the game when he plays like that,” Bellen said. “When he’s on like that, it’s a different game for us. Nobody can mark him one vs. one, one vs. two sometimes. And today he was hungry for shooting at the net and he got a couple of goals.”

Sandwiched around Bomfim’s three goals, Santi Somorrostro opened the second half scoring eight minutes in and Jeronimo Calderon Pacheco scored on a penalty kick in the final 10 minutes. After a couple of first half saves, Panther keeper Ansh Khanna could have had a picnic in front of the net.

This has to be one of the easiest tournament games the Panthers have had in recent years. They hadn’t played the Red Raiders (5-12) during the season. But now it gets tougher with No. 7 Memorial (12-4-1), a team they beat 2-0 a month ago, as the next hurdle.

“That game could have gone either way,” Bellen said. “They’re built kind of like us. …

“We’ve got some guns, and some good leaders on this team.”

That want to face North in the semis. But it’s not going to be easy for both teams on Sunday – certainly not as easy as it was for South last night.