File photo – Tanner Forkner (44) and Gabe Ward had big games for the CR defense on Saturday.

The Corsairs bounced back from their first loss of the season with a big performance on Saturday, while also getting some payback for last year’s Grizzly Bowl defeat.

College of the Redwoods won 24-10 at Monterey Peninsula, rallying from a seven-point halftime deficit and shutting out the home team for the second half.

Coming one week after a somewhat sloppy performance in a loss to West Hills-Coalinga, Saturday’s win was gratifying in more ways than one.

“Definitely the most satisfying win since we beat Foothill last year,” head coach Jason White said. “Just our overall performance, and we lost to them in the bowl game so there was a little bit of vengeance, and it was just a good team win.”

It was impressive not only in the manner in which the Corsairs responded to last week’s disappointment, but also in the fact the team looks to be progressing in all aspects of the game.

The defense continued to play at a very high level, while the offense had an effective day both running and passing the ball behind a much-improved outing by the offensive line.

“Our offensive line played their best game,” White said of the unit, which includes four new starters this season. “We had multiple 10-play plus drives. A couple of them we came up empty, but we moved the ball.

“And the defense was outstanding again.”

After opening their account with a field goal on their first drive of the afternoon, the Corsairs were held scoreless for the remainder of the first half and trailed 10-3 at the interval.

They came out strong in the second half on both sides of the ball, holding the home team on its first possession and then quickly marching down to tie the game with Hough scrambling for a big first down on a fourth-and-10 to set up the score.

“That was a big play,” White said. “That got us sparked.”

Lane Branstetter

The Corsairs scored two second-half touchdowns on offense, one on a QB sneak by Hough and a second on a slant pass to Anthony Aguirre, who has now scored a TD in three of his first four games with the team.

“Max played extremely well,” White said of the former Fortuna Husky who is in his second year with the team. “He threw the ball well and he ran the ball well. We talked to him about pulling the ball down and running more … and he did that today. Max is big and strong.”

Defensive back Gabe Ward also continues to impress and had a late interception return for a TD to put his team up by two scores and help seal the win.

The ever-dangerous Type Whigham and Tanner Forkner also both continued their outstanding seasons, with Whigham recording two late sacks and Forkner “making plays all over the field,” according to White.

Mason Priddy and former Ferndale Wildcat Lane Branstetter had huge games as well in the defensive backfield and neither gave up a reception of more than 10 yards all day.

Running backs Emmanuel Igbonogwam and Levi Cox-Cooley both also had productive days behind the strong showing by the line.

Mason Priddy

“Emmanuel and CC kind of one-two punched them,” White said. “We ran the ball pretty well today.”

Hoopa’s Carlos Aguilar continued to impress and had another big catch to set up one of CR’s second-half TDs.

No final individual stats were immediately available.

The loss was the first of the season for Monterey, which dropped to 2-1.

With the win, the Corsairs improved to 3-1.

CR will be on the road again next week, opening conference play at Foothill, which was 3-0 going into a Saturday night game at Cabrillo.