The two division, 12-team Bay of Plenty Polytechnic Secondary Schools competition kicked off in glorious autumn conditions on Saturday.
Otumoetai College First XV, fresh from their win in the Bay of Plenty co-ed schools competition held last month, faced up to Tauranga Boys' Second XV at Nicholson Field and controlledmost of the game to win 17-12.
A late runaway try to Tauranga added some intrigue to the final few minutes but Otumoetai held on for an important win in division one.
Otumoetai were well led by lock Sam Redmayne and took control in the early part of the second spell after leading by 6-0 at the break.
Coach Jamie Davis was pleased with the second half effort.
"That was much better by our team, much more control of our possession and that helped a lot and got us on the front foot more," he said.
"Early season, I think the error rate on both sides allowed the game to be even but at the end of the day we managed to kick better with some good kicking options to get territory out of that."
Davis made special mention of some of his better-performed players in the convincing win.
"Keegan Long has a really educated boot and tactical kicking game for a young fellah and he kicked a long range penalty early on. He is very good at seeing spots in behind the line and has good weighting to his kicks, which was a key factor in the game today."
Up front, Otumoetai have a hard-working, well-led pack that Davis says will continue to develop over the season.
"Sam Redmayne and Matt Ensor are two forwards worthy of any First XV and are the real ball carrying leaders of our pack. A guy who is under-rated but a real miracle player is Josh Kingsford, who gets on his feet well and turns over ball. He is the tidy-up guy in the team and gee he does a lot of work.
"Troy Webber also played well and is a lock who played openside flanker today, where he has not played before."
Otumoetai College First XV 17 beat Tauranga Boys' College Second XV 12.
