Okapi's U23 team notched its first win of the new Florida Under-23 season with a 42-35 victory over Orlando.

The win moved Okapi to 1-2 and put them in a group of three 1-2 teams with Orlando and Tallahassee.

Okapi got two tries from Nicolas Lane and tries from Joseph Gambin, Leonardo Villa, Davide Villa, and Juaquin Freixa. That's six tries. Orlando scored seven, but failed to convert any of them, while Okapi converted all six tries thanks to Pedro Van Thienen.

With Van Thienen perfect with his conversions, and with Bahamian U19 international Nicolas Lane kicking for touch effectively, the kicking game helped make the difference for the Wanderers.

Orlando led 20-7 at halftime, however, but Okapi's desire to open up the game helped them get back into the contest. With it being hot, and with Okapi's running style and smart kicking game, Orlando had to run, and started to flag in the second half.

Still, Orlando kept stealing the ball, giving them scoring chances and they scored three tries in the second half. The issue was, Okapi scored five.

"We stayed resilient and wore Orlando down to pull off a good win," said Head Coach Ron Suarez.

Most of the Okapi U23 players are from Florida International University, and in fact Suarez normally coaches that team. The Florida U23 league was jump-started in part in order to give a competitive opportunity to college-age players. The teams are augmented with younger members of the area clubs.

Palm Beach Remains On Top

Meanwhile, Palm Beach won again, beating Tallahassee 48-38. These were the two highest-scoring games of the season so far, with the Palm Beach-Tallahassee game totaling 86 and Okapi-Orlando 77. But really only one game this year could  be described as low-scoring, with the average game topping 60 points between the two teams. Palm Beach is averaging 39 points per game.