Mills stays unbeaten, hands Burlingame first loss

When the final horn sounded, it was the Vikings who improved to 4-0 with a hard-fought, physical 12-0 win over the Panthers.

“We’ve never had so many people tackled in a flag football game,” said Burlingame quarterback Miranda Sibley. “But I like it. It gets me hyped.”

Sibley was on the receiving end of a couple of those collisions, but the Panthers never backed down. But Mills’ defense was just too good. The Panthers’ best opportunity to score came on their first drive, as Sibley connected on four passes as she drove Burlingame to the Vikings 9-yard line before Ithzel Hernandez-Solis came up with an interception at the 5-yard line.

It was one of three interceptions on the day for Mills.

“We heard that they like to throw the ball a lot,” said Mills head coach Erik Anderson. “And they did. But we were prepared for it.”

Sibley split time with Kendall Gorshen at quarterback and the two combined to go 16 for 38 for 125 yards. Maddy Koo was the Panthers’ leading receiver, catching four passes for 36 yards. Giana Johnson was right behind with four catches for 31 yards.

“Our game is mostly passing,” Sibley said.

Mills, on the other hand, is one of the more balanced teams in the league and Wednesday was no exception as the Vikings had 206 yards of offense — 105 rushing and 101 passing.

But it was sophomore receiver Alyssa Peñas who had a big day. Not only is she in her first season playing flag football, Wednesday saw her playing receiver for the first time — and it wasn’t until Anderson moved her out wide early in the game.

But Peñas made the move pay off. She hauled in two long passes from Luna Mengel-Yoshimura for 57 yards, one that she turned into a 30-yard touchdown in the first half.

“[Flag football] is really cool. I did volleyball last year,” Peñas said. “It’s a lot faster game.”

Peñas nearly had three catches and three scores, but she had one catch called back on a penalty and in the second half, she had her flag pulled at the 2-yard line.

Mills started its third drive of the game at its own 20 and moved the ball down to the Burlingame 25-yard. On second down, Mengel-Yoshimura lofted a high arcing pass down the right sideline that Peñas ran under for the catch and into the end zone for an apparent touchdown, but the play was called back because of an illegal shift.

No problem. Anderson dialed up the same play and Peñas hauled in the pass in traffic and went into the end zone for a 6-0 lead with 8:19 left in the first half.

Burlingame had a chance to answer following a Cailyn Lish interception that gave the Panthers the ball at the Mills 37-yard line. Gorshen completed four straight passes as the Panthers moved the ball to the Vikings 13, but the first of two Lina Vaka interceptions thwarted that opportunity.

Vaka was a defensive beast for Mills, finishing with 12 tackles and the two picks.

Burlingame’s Brooke Shuman picked off a pass on Mills’ next drive, but Brooke Phimsoutham came up with an interception for Mills to keep the score 6-0 at halftime.

The second half was more of the same, with both teams scratching and clawing for every yard. Mills missed a golden chance to extend its lead on its first drive of the second half. On third down, Mengel-Yoshimura rolled to her right and again picked out Peñas on the right sideline. Peñas initially reached back for the ball, getting both hands on it.

It bobbled out, but Peñas managed to make a juggling catch and if not for Lish staying with the play and pulling the flag, Peñas would have gone in for the score.

“I was not expecting to catch it,” Peñas said.

Anderson said he moved Peñas out wide because, one, his main deep threat, Maya Moore, was out with injury. But second, he knows what kind of athlete Peñas is.

“She’s a phenomenal athlete,” Anderson said. “I knew she could do it.”

Lish’s play turned out to be big because the Burlingame defense made a stand, forcing the Vikings to turn the ball over downs at 1-yard line. But the Panthers could not do anything with the reprieve and punted the ball back to the Vikings.

Mills proceeded to march 60 yards on nine to plays to double the score for a 12-0 lead. The big play was a 28-yard, catch-and-run from Mengel-Yoshimura to Alexis Ivankov, that took the ball from the Vikings’ 25 down to the Burlingame 27.

Mills would eventually face a fourth-and-goal from 9-yard line. Mengel-Yoshimura took the snap and had time to survey the field before finding Phimsoutham for a 9-yard touchdown with 8:51 left in the game.

Burlingame had two more cracks at scoring, but Mills forced a turnover on downs both times to seal the victory.

“All in all, it was good to battle through adversity and get the win,” Anderson said.