Jefferson County made the most of its limited opportunities early, scoring three first-half goals to shut out Morristown East, 6-0.

After losses to Greeneville and South Doyle, the Patriots (9-6-2) bounced back by tying Oak Ridge to end the season, giving them a good reset for the District 2-AAA opener against the ‘Canes, who closed the season at 5-71.

“I’m really proud of this team,” head coach Mitch Przybelski said. “We had a rough couple of games there, and it kind of got in our heads a little bit. “We bounced back good against Oak Ridge, and played well and carried that momentum in today.”

The ‘Canes set the pace for the first 15 minutes of action but couldn’t take advantage of attacking opportunities.

However, Jefferson County’s Isaiah Silva Nuci was able to get the ball in the box and scored a goal from the right side to get the Patriots going early.

“Getting that first goal was huge,” Przybelski said. “I mean, East came out, and I was nervous. I’m not gonna lie. They had more attacks on us than we did. Spent a little bit more time in our half than I wanted to, but that goal by Isaiah was just great. He put it on goal to see if it goes in. And I think that just kind of ignited something that the boys took the rest of the way.”

Sawyer Przbelski then found himself in a one-onone with an East defender, and he was able to gain control in the box and deliver a shot to the bottom left corner to make it 2-0.

From there, East assistant EllieAnn McDonald said that the ‘Canes defense was rattled.

“It was looking pretty 50/50 there for the first five or 10 minutes before they got their first couple goals away, while it was still one, two nil,” McDonald said. “We were feeling pretty confident. And then defensively, quite frankly, we couldn’t really hold it together. Once they had us rattled, they had us rattled. They gained that momentum, and those last third, fourth and fifth goals kind of slipped away from us. It was really a head game there for a minute, and we thought we could recover in the second half, but at the end of the day, they just played better than us, and they were a much bigger, more physical team.”

The goal that sparked the rout came in the final 10 of the first half. Jason Grajales delivered a perfect ball into the center of the box, and Silva Nuci finished it with a header for his second goal to give the Patriots a 3-0 lead into the break.

Jefferson County kept the intensity going, and Devin Riffey scored two secondhalf goals to put East away.

“I told them in the locker room, I was like, ‘3-0 is 0-0 guys, can’t give up now. East is gonna come out. They’re gonna want this. Their season’s on the line, so we have to meet them with intensity. We have to meet them with physicality.’ And man, we responded better than I thought we could. Devin was out for a couple of games, and he came back, scored his first two goals of the season, huge goals. And I can’t say enough about the whole team effort.”

East closes the first season under the coaching staff of Mike McDonald, EllieAnn and Ben Rudd.

“It’s just been a success overall as far as cultivating that new culture, trying to get our feet under us, trying to gain some respect and some trust as coaches,” EllieAnn McDonald said. “It was a completely new coaching staff going into this. And so we have to completely start from ground zero. Overall, just everything has been pretty good. As far as the team’s culture is concerned, the team operating as a group, even building friendships and stuff like that off the field, it’s it’s been good. So, I mean, there’s a lot to be grateful for amidst all this as well.”

McDonald made sure to thank the senior class for its role in building a good foundation for the staff.

“One name specifically that comes to mind is Chris Cortez,” McDonald said. “He’s our number seven, and he’s pretty much started every single game, and he’s just been a great leader from the jump in easing our transition as coaches from the previous coaching staff to now. He helped us with leadership, even helping lead a couple of practices. I mean, all of our seniors really have helped with that, and really just kept a good, humble leadership about them. I’d say they set a good example for the rest of the team. And people like Chris, Luis Lopez, we’re really going to miss them because they’re just some of our best talents. But we’ve got some good juniors, sophomores and freshmen coming up. So I’m confident for next season.”

The Patriots now move on to a tall task in regular-season champion Sevier County, which defeated them 5-2 in the previous matchup.

“Just happy for the boys that we get to continue playing, because the thing I’ve been telling them was that our season starts today,” Przybelski said. “What we do today determines whether or not we’re going to continue to play. So, very proud of them, and we get a chance to play Sevierville at their place. We know they’re tough. And then regions, whoever that opponent is, like I said at the beginning of the season, I said, Let’s do what we did last year. Shock everybody. Nobody had expectations for us this year, stalled a little bit during the middle of the season, and I was like, let’s just give it everything we’ve got and see where we end up.”