Ohio Valley Ironmen Head Coach and General Manager gives pre-game instructions to his team prior to taking the field.

The Ohio Valley Ironmen opened their 2025 professional football season on Saturday night in Moundsville at John Marshall’s Monarch Field with a 45-0 blasting of the visiting Cincinnati Dukes before a crowd of nearly 1,000.

The Ironmen who last performed in the area in the late 1960’s never missed a beat in the opener as they started out scoring on their first play of the night on a 65 yard pass and run play to make it 6-0 with just 10 seconds of the clock. The extra point attempt sailed wide right, but the home team was off and running.

The Ironmen controlled the game from start to finish rolling up over 400 yards of offense while limiting the visitors to under 30 yards. Despite all the huge yardage difference Coach Manny Matsakis was not completely satisfied as he said, “Every player on the team has a lot of room for improvement.” “We need to be more disciplined and make sure that the structure of what we’re playing is cleaner football,” added Matsakis.

Javonte Howard the ex-Capital High School and University of Charleston player was on target as he threw for five T.D’s and a total of 251 yards, including the game opening 65 yard strike to Cahsid Raymond, who was on the receiving end of three touchdown plays.

The Ironmen struck again at the 9:36 mark of the first quarter when Howard found D’Ago Hunter open in the left corner of the end zone for a six yard score to make it 13-0 after the extra point kick by Daniel Parisi. Both teams failed to move the ball on their next series and the first quarter ended with the Ironmen in control. With just over two minutes off the second quarter clock the Ironmen added six more when Howard completed his third T.D strike a 30 yarder to Joseph Boykin to run the advantage to 19-0.

The next series by Cincinnati resulted in a fumble and then the Ironmen failed to move the ball and coughed it up giving the visitors another chance, however they turned it over again and the home town guys capitalized when Raymond caught a pass from Howard and avoided four defenders to go into the endzone from 34 yards out to make it 25-0. The extra point by Parisi made it 26-0 with over two minutes still on the second quarter clock.

The Ironmen wasted no time getting the ball back as Jalin Mack got an interception setting up another Ironmen score with under a minute to play in the first half, when Howard and Raymond teamed up for a 14 yard TD pass to make it 32-0 at the half and for all intents and purposes the game was over.

Following the halftime break Cincinnati took the kick and on their second play from scrimmage coughed it up again for their seventh turnover of the night. West Virginia Wesleyan product Chris Barrett took over at QB for the Ironmen and immediately hooked up with Said Sidibe out of Virgina Union for a four yard score to up the count to 38-0. Running back Terelle West from Middle Tennessee State got the Ironmen another score on a one yard run off tackle to make the final count 45-0.

The Ironmen coaching staff is made up of Stan Bedwell, Boogie Johnson, Shawn Liotta, and Dante Fefelice on offense. Defensively the coaching staff is made up of Clint Lekandous, Jeremy Liotta, Bailey McGrath, and Rob Caldwell. Head Coach Manny Matsakis had words of praise for all the coaches saying they worked hard to get the team ready for opening night.

“Clint Lekanudos is a really good defensive coordinator,” Matsakis said. “He’s done a great job of putting this together. From his perspective, this is his first time coaching professional athletes. I’m proud of him and his defensive staff. I’m looking forward to seeing what he is able to do with this team.”

The Ironmen will return to the playing field on Saturday when they host the Erie Express with kickoff slated for 7 p.m.