Search for a multiword string in a list of strings
Just use the continue keyword to force the advancement to evaluate the next string.
Code after the if statement will only execute if the previous statement was false.

import re
strings = ["abc zzz", "y", "#comment"]
for s in strings:
    match = re.search("(\S+) (\S+)", s)
    if match:
        print "Multiword: %s+%s" % (match.group(1), match.group(2))
        continue
    match = re.match("y$", s)
    if match:
        print "Positive"
        continue
    match = re.match("n$", s)
    if match:
        print "Negative"
        continue

    # a few more matches possible in real life script,
    # and then the last catch-all:
    print "No match found, line skipped"