Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Corsairs travel to Gavilan this weekend.

By Ray Hamill — A high-octane Corsairs offense will be tested this weekend, when they travel to Gilroy to play Gavilan College on Saturday afternoon.

College of the Redwoods racked up an impressive 541 yards of offense in its season opener a week ago, against a perennial contender in Monterey Peninsula College.

This weekend, however, they match up against a Rams defense that allowed just 220 yards to Los Medanos in their opener.

Plenty of positives for Corsairs in opener against Monterey Peninsula College last weekend …

“They struggled on offensive,” CR head coach Frank Borba said of Gavilan, which finished with just 107 yards. “But defensively they play hard. They have two interior linemen and they can really play.”

The Corsairs had problems themselves running the ball effectively against a Monterey Peninsula defense that set out to stop the run a week ago, but they were able to take advantage of a dynamic passing attack.

Freshman quarterback Brody Lucero, who red-shirted a year ago, passed for 509 yards and five touchdowns.

A pair of big-play receivers in Zach Loveland and Micha Fontenot-Cornely each scored a pair of TDs, while accounting for 400 yards receiving between them.

Despite the big performances, however, the Corsairs lost the game 41-34, and like Gavilan they will be looking for their first win on Saturday.

“It was a good learning experience on Monday to see film of Saturday’s game, and we had a good week of practice,” Borba said. “The kids are focused.”

Like any football from week one to week two, the Corsairs will be looking to clean up an assortment of early-season rustiness.

“Our main focus all this week is just to correct our mistakes,” the head coach said. 

Defensively, the Corsairs looked solid at times against the Lobos, but made too many mental errors and penalties to allow the visitors keep drives going.

This week, they face a Gavilan offense that had minus-10 yards rushing in a 22-7 loss at Los Medanos.

Defensively, however, Gavilan will present a far bigger challenge.

Red-zone letdowns prove costly for dynamic Corsairs — Too many red-zone breakdowns cost the Corsairs on Saturday afternoon, as they dropped their season opener, 41-34 …

As to whether or not the Corsairs will look to establish more of a ground game, that depends on what they see, according to the coach.

“With us, it’s always the same, we’re going to take what a team gives us,” Borba said. “If there’s matchups we think we can exploit, then we’re going to try and exploit them.”

Saturday’s game is scheduled for 2 p.m.