Fonzy Ortega, a bright spot for Mills this season, was injured last week against Woodside and unavailable for Friday’s game. Mills had to cancel its game with Dougherty Valley because of a lack of healthy players.
The Mills football team, which has battled low roster numbers for years, had to cancel its home game with Dougherty Valley-San Ramon because of a lack of healthy players.
“Down to 13 (healthy players). We lost four from last week. Four linemen,” said Mills head coach Kevin Thorson.
The Vikings’ best offensive player, Fonzy Ortega, would also miss the game after banging up his knee. Thorson said there was not structural damage, but the best option was to hold him out.
“Fonzy was going to give it a go, but then he got sick,” Thorson said. “He didn’t practice all week. There was no reason to play.”
Mills had an opening this late in the season because of South City’s decision not to field a varsity team this season. Thorson said he was planning all week to host the East Bay team, but as the Vikings’ health didn’t get better, he and school administrators decided canceling the game was the prudent decision.
“It wouldn’t have been the right 13,” Thorson said. “[The decision] makes sense. [Administrators] wouldn’t say to cancel it unless we really needed to cancel. You have to look at all angles.”
The Vikings are only two seasons removed from a Peninsula Athletic League Lake Division title and a Central Coast Section playoff appearance. The school opted out of the 2021 COVID-influenced spring season and had low numbers show up for the start of the fall season. The Vikings are coming off a 30-8 loss to Woodside last week and have yet to win a game this season, having scored a total of 62 points through seven games.
Thorson said there was discussion about bringing up players from the junior varsity to fill in, but ultimately decided against that, as well.
“I don’t think that’s fair to the JV players,” Thorson said.
Thorson said the decision to cancel Friday’s game was for this week only. He is still preparing for “The Battle of the Strip” rivalry game with Capuchino next week.
“We’re planning on playing (Capuchino), just like we had planned on playing this week,” Thorson said. “We’ll see what we got on Monday.”
Sports Editor
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