The Ironmen ran out comfortable 50-32 victors to record a first win under the guidance of former Wales and British & Irish Lions second row Evans, who last month assumed the head coaching duties along with ex-Cardiff Blues outside half Gareth Davies for the rest of the season following the departure of Rowland Phillips.
Full-back Ben Jones scored a hat-trick, with Josh Lewis, Lloyd Rowlands, Chad Thomas and Cole Swannack also on the scoresheet. Lewis kicked six conversions and a penalty.
For Bridgend this was a sixth straight defeat in all competitions but they scored four tries of their own to ensure they didn’t leave empty handed. Evan Yardley, Cameron Ellis, Dafi Davies and Joe Gatt were their try scorers. Jacob Lloyd kicked three conversions and two penalties.
Although pleased with the win, Evans explained they won’t be getting carried away: “We’ve got the monkey off our back, but it’s one game and there’s a lot of work to be done,” he said.
“There’s plenty of room for improvement; I thought we were in control for the majority of the game but there were a couple of crazy moments and a 10-minute spell where we gave Bridgend a sniff of getting a result.
“We ended up scoring a lot of tries but from a defensive point of view we let in two of three soft tries if I’m being honest. We’ll work on that and the most important thing for us is building consistency.”
Newport put in a five-star performance at St Helen’s to beat Swansea 33-14 and avenge their defeat at the hands of the Whites earlier in the season.
For the Black & Ambers this was just their third competitive outing in seven weeks, but the win makes it three on the bounce in the Indigo Prem all away from home.
If they did come into this contest a little ring rusty, they were certainly given a helping hand with Swansea picking up two yellow cards in quick succession inside the opening quarter, as Gareth O Rees and then Lloyd Evans were sent to the sin-bin.
And Newport seized on their numerical advantage, scoring twice through full-back Ioan Davies and then scrum-half Dafydd Buckland, both converted by Jac Lloyd. The visitors still had a one-man advantage when wing Lloyd Lewis ran in a third try, this time unconverted, to go 19-0 in front.
Swansea responded either side of the break through lock Matt Dodd and wing Harri Houston, with both tries improved by Brandon Wood. But the visitors pulled clear in the latter stages. Hooker Wade Langley made sure of the bonus point, converted by Lloyd, before Lewis darted through for his second of the afternoon with Carwyn Penny this time adding the extras.
Meanwhile, second placed Ebbw Vale bounced back from defeat at home by Cardiff with a 35-14 bonus-point win on the road at RGC.
The Steelmen scored four tries courtesy of centres Ethan Phillips and Dom Franchi, loose head prop Morgan Davies and replacement Ieuan Morris. Outside half Evan Lloyd added three conversions and three penalties.
Prop Christian Hone got the RGC try with full-back Sam Earl-Jones kicking two penalties and outside half Arthur Lennon sending over a drop goal.
With Llandovery not in action, Ebbw have now pulled to within two points of Llandovery but have played two games more. Newport, in third, are 11 points back with three games in hand on Ebbw and one on Llandovery.
Pontypridd put two agonising single-point defeats in as many weeks against Ebbw Vale and Llandovery behind them as they returned to winning ways by running in eight tries to beat Neath 48-10 at Sardis Road.
Scrum-half Harvey Nash got them up and running in the third minute and further first half tries followed from Sion Parry, Liam Lloyd, Cally James and Ben Burnell for a 29-3 half time lead with Josh Phillips converting two of them.
Further tries followed in the second half from Garyn Smith, Joe Miles and captain Kristian Parker. Phillips improved Smith’s score while Burnell added the extras to Miles’ try.
Sean Wilcox got a consolation try for Neath, converted by Kristian Jones. Steff Williams kicked a penalty in the first half.
