Valley remains the frontrunner in the Citizens Shield, as it is undefeated after three rounds of the North Otago premier club competition.
The Weston side handled its business on the road against Maheno and came away with a 27-10 win.
Excelsior has won two on the trot, beating Athletic Marist 20-15, while Old Boys got their first win of the 2023 campaign with a 27-7 triumph over defending champion Kurow.
Excelsior got off to a great start at Whitestone Contracting Stadium, opening the scoring through prop Isoa Vasukilulu.
The rest of the first half was an arm-wrestle, both teams trading penalty kicks to make it 10-3 at the break.
As Athies have done every week so far, they came roaring out of the gates in the second 40, and tries to tight forwards Temesia Bolavucu and Epineri Logavatu had them up 15-13 with 10 minutes remaining.
But they were unable to control the ball off the kickoff, giving Blues great field position. From the ensuing scrum, Excelsior was able to spin it wide to Oli Knopp, who got on the outside of his defender and offloaded back infield to Matia Qiolevu, who crashed over.
Josh Phipps slotted the kick from out wide to make it a five-point game and force Athies to chase a try to win.
They were unable to do so, thanks to a big final defensive effort from Blues.
The Excelsior front row had an impressive showing and laid a solid platform at scrum time.
Mat Duff got through a mountain of work and was in the thick of everything.
Knopp helped steer the team around the park from fullback, and was even able to charge down a conversion.
Logavatu had another strong outing in the second row for Athies, while Lotu Fifita was a handful in the midfield as well.
Old Boys picked up their first win of the season over Kurow in a rematch of last year’s final.
They took a 10-point lead into halftime, and a dominant finish kept the Red Devils scoreless in the second half.
Valley is battling for numbers but is unbeaten after three rounds.
Valley dominated much of the all-country clash at Maheno, with a late consolation try from the home side making the game look closer than it was.
