Xaverian have never shied away from a challenge and the Hawks know they are getting one Friday night when they travel to Springfield to face highly-touted Springfield Central.

The teams met twice last year with Springfield Central winning the regular season encounter (44-41) only to have Xaverian rebound with a 21-20 victory in a Div. 1 state quarterfinal. The Hawks (2-0) went on to win the championship and possess a 10-game winning streak.

“We’re playing a premier program in the state and this is something we like, it’s like the East vs. West,” said Xaverian coach Al Fornaro. “They have a very good football team, they are well-coached and they have it rolling.

“Remember last year, they were starting a few seniors and they two-platoon in a lot of positions. The quarterback (Jareth Staine) is a year older and a year better, they have a lineman (Dominic Rijos) heading to Coastal Carolina and (Dwayne) Early is all of 6-5 so we’ll need a stepladder to try and cover him.”

Xaverian opened the season with wins over Bishop Feehan (35-14) and Everett (56-27), a game in which Vincent Busa established a new school record by rushing for 340 yards and five touchdowns. While Fornaro was happy with the offensive execution, he wants to see the defense step it up.

“As crazy as this sounds, I never felt safe in the Everett game. The way it was going, I was thinking we might have to score 80 because of the ease in which they were scoring on us,” Fornaro said. “We are nowhere near where we need to be. Against this team, we are going to have to keep our kids focused and limit the mistakes we’ve been making so far.

“It’s going to be a challenge but I know our kids are up for the challenge.”

Xaverian isn’t the only Catholic Conference facing a strong road test. Catholic Memorial heads to Leominster in hopes of slowing down their terrific quarterback Osiris Lopez.

Other juicy nonleague matchups include Marshfield at Mansfield, Duxbury at Franklin, Milford at Natick and Old Rochester at Dartmouth. As for contests involving teams within their own league, Billerica hosts Central Catholic, King Philip puts its 16-game winning streak on the line against Foxboro and Manchester-Essex travels to Triton.

A pair of coaches will be gunning for their 200th win Friday night. Melrose’s Tim Morris takes another shot at the elusive milestone when his team takes on Swampscott, while Auburn’s Jeff Cormier is looking to get there as well when they take on Maynard.

St. John’s Prep puts its undefeated record on the line Saturday when it hosts LaSalle (Rhode Island), while Wellesley has a Saturday Night Special at home against Walpole. In the ISL, BB&N travels to Milton Academy, while Tabor visits Governor’s Academy.