The roads that Middlesex and St. Mark’s have taken to Saturday’s showdown are remarkably similar.

Both teams have struggled in recent years before turning over their programs to coaches steeped in college coaching experience and both are 3-1 with the wins coming over similar opponents and the loss to powerful Tabor.

“I think this is something you are seeing throughout the ISL,” said first-year Middlesex coach Scott Woodward, who previously served as an assistant at the University of Kentucky. “Belmont Hill hired Anthony Fucillo, Tabor hired Jeff Moore and St. Mark’s hired Ken Goodwin, all of whom had the same coaching background as far as having coached at the college level.”

Woodward has coaching in his blood. He played for his father, Hall of Fame coach Jim Woodward, at Mahar and went on to play quarterback at UMass. Not surprisingly, Woodward immediately went into the coaching profession and worked his way up the ladder to Pittsburgh and Kentucky.

While he liked the job, he found out that free time isn’t something in a coach’s vocabulary. For someone who loves coaching, but loves the concept of a stable family life, Woodward learned the two don’t always go hand in hand at the major college level.

“I have a two-year old (James) and another one on the way,” Woodward said. “I love coaching football but didn’t want it to run my life. Many days I was at work at 6 a.m. and didn’t get home until 11 at night. There would be times where I would go days and weeks without seeing my son and I didn’t want that.

“I was looking around for a change and I noticed Middlesex was looking for a coach. I knew (athletic director) Craig Najarian from when he was at Catholic Memorial and I was recruiting some of their players, so I decided to go for the job. I met with (head of school) Bessie Spears and Craig and they made it a point to stress that they wanted to make football a priority.”

Goodwin went down that path at St. Mark’s a year ago. A former assistant at both Stonehill and Bryant, Goodwin knew it was going to take some time to turn around a program that was in the middle of a losing streak (it reached 15 before a win against Brooks on Sept. 28).

“Last year, the big thing wasn’t as much about wins and losses as much as building a culture,” said Goodwin. “The big challenge for the smaller schools in our league is to get kids who have a passion for football. We weren’t getting the results so that made it tougher for us, but we were able to bring in a group of 16 kids and they’ve made a big difference.

“You can’t even put it into words how big the win over Brooks was. Many of these kids had won something like one game in four years here, so these kids who went through the hard times can finally see that we are heading in the right direction.”

Middlesex’s fortunes weren’t much better as they entered the season having won just two games in its last 16. The Zebras matched that total by week two, but lost to Tabor, 42-7. The loss wasn’t easy to take, but Woodward was pleased by what happened after the game.

“Four or five of the Tabor coaches came up to us and said how hard our kids played throughout the game,” Woodward said. “That meant a lot to me to hear that. I think we have a bunch of good kids who just needed to gain some confidence in themselves and now they are seeing it.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Bishop Feehan hosts Bishop Fenwick in a Catholic Central League showdown. Hingham has gotten off to a solid start but will face its toughest obstacle to date when it tangles with highly-touted Marshfield.

Friday is loaded with big games for a variety of reasons. Xaverian comes off a heartbreaking loss to Catholic Memorial and has to travel to BC High to face the undefeated Eagles.

In the South Shore League, undefeated East Bridgewater squares off against Sandwich, while Randolph visits Carver. Other big contests include Fairhaven at Bourne, Barnstable at Dartmouth, Canton at Foxboro, Greater Lowell at Shawsheen, Methuen at Billerica and BB&N at St. Sebastian’s.

Wachusett coach Mike Dubzinski seeks to become the 62nd coach in state history to win 200 games when his team travels to Leominster.