By Ed Muniz- Photos by Gary Larson
** Additional Photos are Available for purchase at https://justallsports.zenfolio.com/p763439441 **
CHICAGO— Remember when you became part of something new to you, like a new job or a new school or a new neighborhood or even a new team. There’s a feeling out period where you’re just learning your way, making new realationships and just trying to fit in and find your niche.
The Kenosha Gremlins youth football program find themselves in that feeling out period.
The first year program became part of the 2025 Chicagoland Pop Warner football organization and will field seven football teams competing in 6U, 9U-13U with two teams at the oldest level and also have two cheer squads along the sidelines entertaining fans and supporting the players.
You’d expect first year programs in the highly competitive CPW league to find the path to success full of bumps and difficulities in their first year of existence. Most certainly do, but eventually, with a few years of experience, the path becomes more welcoming and successes start to pile on.
For the Gremlins, their first taste of CPW competition saw three of their seven teams come out on top and it easily could have been five of seven if not for two losses in Overtime. The Kenosha Gremlins certainly surprised some folks.
Hosting six of their seven teams on their home field in week one of the season may have worked to their advantage.
The lone team on the road was the 9U Gremlins headed by Coach Tre Griffin. Their first game took place at Taft HS in Chicago against the Oriole Park Falcons.
Jumping ahead 13-0, the Gremlins first half success eventually found fatigue its nemisis, succumbing to it and failing in overtime 20-13 on August 24.
“This was our first game. We had a great first half,” said Coach Griffin. ” Our second half was really shakey, we really slowed down. We have some things to clean up. We need more reps, reps , reps to get rid of the communication problems we had, they have to get used to it so everyone can remember the plays called. I believe we out played them, we just collapsed after they scored their first touchdown, the team got a little tight, first game of the season, first time giving up a touchdown.”
“I would say we played at a C-grade today. We just have to get our O-line together because they struggled in the second half, made us kind of one dimensional that second half. We’ll get better at it and also work on blocking, not just on the initial block but that second one and third one that helps us get big plays. We have speed and get to the outside quick but we need the second and third blocks too. I feel 100% we should have won this game. We’ll take it as a learning lesson and get better.”
The Gremlins started the game on defense and excelled at limiting the Falcons to short gains. The Gremlins defense was quick and disruptive, having multiple players to the ball on each Falcon attempt.
Tackles by Kater Miles, Javier Alonso, Jayce Jackson, Makai Jenkins-Jones and Casen Dale forced the Falcons to give up the ball on downs.
The Gremlins offense was about using their speed to get to the outside nearly the entire game. They mixed direct snaps to a back and handoffs from quarterback’ Kyson Pollard to change up plays but rarely tested between the tackles.
Their premiere series saw running-back’ Kyrie Griffin burst for 16-yards on the very first play. His speed found him some room outside grabbing a big chunk on his first carry.
A few plays later on fourth down, maybe the best run of the day came from Jenkins-Jones. He took a handoff started one way zig-zagged through Falcon defenders then back the other way weaving back through the bodies blocking for and pursuing him, eluding every tackle attempt and finally breaking free down the far sideline for the apparent 43-yard touchdown after running 40-yards side to side.
Unfortunately, no one saw the mysterious penalty flag that never appeared, it nullified the impressive run and took the score off the board.
“I work at beng hard to tackle and make it not easy to tackle me,” said Makai. “I like playing both offense and defense so I’m not sure which I like more. I just use my speed to get big runs. I want to read the holes better and get through them faster. On defense I could work on tackling better but I do follow the ball pretty good and do make some tackles.”
The first quarter ended scoreless. The Gremlins defense was on stage again to start the second quater, bending but not breaking, making the stop when needed most. Continuing to pile on the teams tackle tally were Griffin, Dale, Jackson, Myles, Sincere Hitchcock, Pollard, Jenkins-Jones and Donnell Lauderdale Jr., again shutting down the Falcons and giving the football back to their offense after stopping the Falcons at the Gremlin 12-yard-line on downs.
The following offensive series saw the Gremlins get on the scoreboard.
Kyrie Griffin started with a blistering 24-yard run, two plays later he hit pay dirt after speeding by everyone to the edge, juking a defender and flashing by his own bench enroute to the endzone on the 67-yard touchdown sprint, giving the visitors a 6-0 lead late in the first half.
Griffin gave his offense another chance when he came up with a Falcon fumble at the Oriole Park 43 Yard-line on the enuing series after the score.
With time ticking away, the Gremlins worked quickly. A run to the left sideline saw Jenkins-Jones streak for 17-yards, then on the next play as time expired, Griffin also found the edge quickly on a direct snap, got to the sideline and raced to the endzone with no time on the clock, scoring his second touchdown on the day. Karter Myles added the point-after as both teams headed to halftime with the Gremlins up 13-0.
The second half saw the Gremlins start on offense and go on a nine-play drive that ultimately ended on downs as Grffin and Jenkins-Jones and Pollard rushed the ball but now had the Falcons making defensive adjustments that stifled the Kenosha offense.
The Gremlins closed out the third quarter with tackles by Hitchcock, Dale and Lauderdale Jr. but a couple of penalties, one being a facemask, had the Falcons threatening to score and they did just that entering the last stanza on an 11-yard touchdown run. The Gremlins were showing the onset of fatigue while the host Falcons were now feeling the momentum swing after their touchdown closed the gap to 13-6.
The Gremlin offense was now sputtering and couldn’t maintain possesion with the Falcons now smothering the running lanes on the edge, resulting in Kenosha losing the ball on downs again.
Although they kept trying to make plays, the Gremlins were just hanging on as the fourth quarter wound down. The Falcons used the short field to their advantage and used five plays to go 41-yards for the touchdown and tied the game at 13-13 after pounding the ball in on the vital extra-point.
The game went into Overtime when the Gremlins last offensive efforts expired on Dale’s 21-yard run.
In Overtime, each team would start at the opposing 10-yard-line and have four tries to score, alternating until there was a winner. The Falcons went on offense first and used three plays to score on a run up the middle, they aded the point-after and now led 20-13.
The Gremlins offense committed two penalties in their efforts to tie the game in overtime which pushed them back, never able to recover on their four tries and failing to score which gave the 20-13 comeback victory to the Falcons.
The Gremlins have the ability and talent to succeed at this level as shown by their offensive star’ Kyrie Griffin who gave his all in the loss.
“Its a little bit hard playing for my dad, he gets on me for mistakes but I’m glad I play for him,” said Kyrie. “I think I need to get better at wrapping low on my tackles. I ran as hard as I could and really like running to the outside. I scored twice so that was good. I’m not sure what we need to get better at as a team .”
Defensively, the Gremlins were led by Jayce Jackson. He managed to grab several tackles and was showing why he enjoys playing defense .
“I like tackling and getting through the line when I play defense,” said Jackson. “I really like tackling people, its fun. I like getting sacks and getting back there powering through for the sack. I think if I keep on going hard, I will get better. I like playing defense more than offense.”
Other Gremlins that gave their all and contributed in the close game include Devin Trevino Bizzel, Duncan Brenner, Kyhri Henyard, A’mere Baxter, Cemaj Sherrod, Kingsten Anderson, Jaxon Greenwood-Wilson, Tristian Hitchcock, Addison Villarreal, Nassan Irby, Timothy Bell Jr., Joseph Schmickel, Nazir Phillips, Kamron Martin, Bruce Marshall III and Anthony Woods Jr.
Look for the Gremlins to rebound in week two of the Chicagoland Pop Warner season.
