Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Corsairs will play five home games and a scrimmage at the Redwood Bowl this fall.

By Ray Hamill — With exactly 100 days to go to the 2023 College of the Redwoods opener in football, local fans will be hoping the Corsairs can replicate the excitement of last season when the new campaign kicks off.

The season begins on Sept. 2 at the Redwood Bowl when the Corsairs host Merced, the first of five home games this fall.

Local fans, however, won’t have to wait quite as long to take in some action, with a home preseason scrimmage against Siskiyous also scheduled for the Redwood Bowl on August 19 at 2 p.m.

Last fall, the Corsairs returned from a two-year hiatus with a bang, finishing with a record of 7-4 and competing for a conference title all the way to the final weekend of the regular season.

An almost all-freshmen roster quickly established itself as a conference contender with seven straight wins.

With the vast majority of that team coming back, along with a new class of talented recruits, the Corsairs will be expected to be even more competitive this fall and to challenge once again for the American Pacific-7 Conference championship.

The Corsairs will play all of their home games at the picturesque Redwood Bowl on the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt and are scheduled to return home to Community Stadium at CR once the planned renovation and new all-weather field have been completed in 2024.

Redwoods will play its second home game of 2023 two weeks after hosting Merced, when West Hills travels to Arcata.

The schedule also includes home games against Los Medanos on Oct.7, Yuba on Oct. 21 and Siskiyous on Nov. 18.

The Los Medanos and Yuba games will both kick off at 3 p.m., with the other three home contests all set for 1 p.m.

Quarterback Max Hough will be back in 2023 after an outstanding freshman season.

CR will play road games at San Jose (Sept. 9 at  1 p.m.), at Monterey Peninsula (Sept. 23 at 2 p.m.), at Foothill (Sept. 30 at 1 p.m.), at DeAnza (Nov. 4 at 1 p.m.) and at Gavilan (Nov. 11 at 1 p.m.

Interestingly, the Corsairs will not travel for any games in the month of October, with byes on the 14th and 28th.