Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Shane Purcell threw a pair of TD passes for CR on Saturday.

A pair of former H-DNL quarterbacks combined for five touchdowns on Saturday afternoon, as College of the Redwoods cruised to a 50-7 win over Yuba at the Redwood Bowl.

Corsairs starter Max Hough continued to impress and completed 10 of 13 passes for 182 yards and three TDs while splitting time with Shane Purcell, who completed 6 of 11 passes for 127 yards and two TDs.

Both players had one interception.

“Shane has been practicing well and we wanted to give him some time and some meaningful minutes,” head coach Jason White said of the Arcata graduate. “Max played well. He threw for three touchdowns.

“We have two really good quarterbacks. We’re fortunate that way.”

The Corsairs offense didn’t get going until the second quarter but once they did they quickly took control and opened up a 20-0 lead midway through the period.

Hough, a Fortuna graduate, completed three TD passes in the quarter, including a 42-yard completion to former Hoopa Warrior Carlos Aguilar.

Hough also had scoring completions of 33 and 44 yards to Anthony Aguirre and Emmanuel Igbonogwam.

Yuba’s only score of the game came in the last minute of the first half and CR went into the break leading 20-7.

The second half, however, belonged to the Corsairs, who put up 30 unanswered points to end the game as a contest long before the final buzzer.

And with the game well in control, the CR coaches gave several backs-ups plenty of playing time, utilizing 11 different receivers.

“We had a bunch of guys get touches,” White said. “It’s fun when you get to play everybody.”

And no matter who took the field for the Corsairs, they continued to dominate on both sides of the ball, as well as on special teams, where they had a blocked punt and a blocked field goal.

“Just the overall effort of the team (is what impressed me),” White said. “It didn’t matter who we put in, the effort never diminished and that’s a sign of a team that’s starting to mature.”

The offensive line also had a good outing and paved the way for the success on offense.

“You don’t move the ball effectively with a variety of skill guys without those guys playing well,” White said of the line. 

Purcell had second-half TD passes of 11 yards to Daryl White and 15 yards to Tyler Haskell, while Igbonogwam added a two-yard TD run and Jordy Bowers had a three-yard TD run.

Ryan Thomas also kicked a 30-yard field goal to round out the scoring.

Two weeks after his record-tying performance against Los Medanos, sophomore running back Levi Cox-Cooley had 45 yards on a team-high eight carries, while Tyrus Arakawa had 50 yards on two carries and Igbonogwam added 45 yards on six carries.

Aguirre led the receivers with four catches for 62 yards, while Carson Tucker had two catches for 13 yards.

On special teams, Ferndale’s Lane Branstetter had a kickoff return for 39 yards and he also led the defense with 11 tackles, including eight solo tackles.

Mason Priddy and Tanner Forkner each added eight tackles, including two-and-a-half tackles for a loss for Priddy and two for Forkner.

With the win, which was their second straight, the Corsairs improved to 2-1 in the American-Pacific 7 Conference and moved into second place, and they are now 5-2 overall.

Yuba dropped to 1-1 and 1-6.

CR has a bye next week before playing back-to-back road games at DeAnza and Gavilan.

The Corsairs have one more home game against Siskiyous on Nov. 18