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Morristown East threatened, but the Patriots pulled away for a comfortable 4-1 victory over the ‘Canes in their District 2-AAA opener at Burke-Toney Stadium.

With the win, Jefferson County (6-0-1, 1-0 District 2-AAA) stayed unbeaten on the year and kicked off their mission to claim the district title, something that has eluded the program for the past two seasons.

“I’m so proud of these kids,” JCHS coach Mitch Przybelski said. “We knew this would be a tough place to play. It’s a unique experience, and it’s good to get a victory here, because it could have very easily gone the other way for us. I mean, it got really nervy in the second half when they scored that goal, and they pulled within one, and you can feel the momentum shift a little their way, but our players dug in and stayed confident and got through it, got through that difficult part.”

East fell to 3-2-1 (1-1), suffering their first district loss in the process.

“It was a really tough game,” East assistant Ben Rudd said. “They played a really physical game on a small field, and I think our boys gave some good effort, but we are going to try to work on some stuff, and then hopefully see them again.”

The Patriots scored two goals late in the first half — the first of which came from Isaiah Nuci, and the second came from Jason Grajales after rebounding his own blocked penalty kick for a goal.

The ‘Canes went into the intermission trailing 2-0, but they found some life following a long break in play due to an anonymous call to the police that there was a gun in the facility. After it was found that there was no legit threat, the teams retook the field with about 40 minutes to go.

Shortly after returning to action, William De Leon injected life back into the home team with a goal with 38 minutes to go. The Patriots struggled to get back to form after that, and East had some chances to deliver the equalizer but came up short.

“I think a lot of the consistency I’ve seen in the season is our second halves usually go better than the first halves for us,” Rudd said. “William hit a beautiful ball. That’s probably one of the best goals we’ve scored all season. And I think that breathed some life back into the team, but they were just really physical, and they were just winning more of the ball than us. And I don’t think we could ever really find much of a rhythm, rhythm after that, but is what it is.”

JCHS reeled it back in and got two goals out of Gio Maldonado when he stopped a clearance from East with 16 minutes to go that left the goal defenseless. His next came nearly three minutes later, scoring an impressive goal on a corner kick to set the final score.

“It was just making sure they understood to stay calm,” Przybelski said of his team’s ability to take back momentum. “We have a plan. Stay with that plan. Don’t overcommit yourself. Play as a team. Stay disciplined. Play our game so that we don’t get out of it. Because we know in the stadium with all the fans, it can get really chaotic, really quick, and it did. It almost got away from us. It could have went the other way. But I’m really proud of those guys for the way they toughed it out.”

The ‘Canes will look to put Tuesday’s loss behind them and take a three-week break from district action with games against potential Region 1 opponent Science Hill and Halls before closing out its district play against two-time defending champ Sevier County.

“It’s going to be a lot of the stuff that we have been working on all season,” Rudd said. “Focusing on playing really hard and playing the best that we can play, and playing the way that we know we can play, and not playing our opponent’s game, but trying to show them how we can play.”

The Patriots look to stay unbeaten next Wednesday at Knox Catholic before also matching up with the Smoky Bears in the following week to take possession of first place in the district.

“We got Catholic, which we know is a very tough team, and from the district side, we got severe, and we know they’re a very tough team,” Przybelski said. “So it’s about staying healthy, staying together, picking our confidence up and seeing how we can finish strong. We know that we have difficult run in this last half, but I have confidence in them.”