Malden Catholic has acquitted itself rather well against a pair of New Hampshire schools as well as Bedford.

The road will get a little tougher Saturday afternoon when the Lancers host Concord-Carlisle in a battle of undefeated teams.

“This group of kids have been working very hard since their sophomore year and I’m so very happy for them,” said Malden Catholic coach Joe Gaff, whose team is off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 2015. “I thought we were going to start to turn things around last year but we were young and made some early mental mistakes that we aren’t making any more.”

Some of those youngsters turned senior stars that Gaff was referring to are lineman Hayden Ford, tight end/defensive end Ben Howard and quarterback George Rodgers.

They played key roles in last year’s 28-7 victory over these same Patriots from Concord-Carlisle. Concord-Carlisle head coach Josh Reed felt a lot of the problems in that contest were self-inflicted.

“We didn’t help ourselves at all with careless penalties that put us in first-and-long and second-and-long,” Reed said. “Defensively, we struggled on the edge and that hurt us. We think we have new players that should help us there.”

Quarterback Matt Carleton and wide receiver/running back Will Hoover are coming off big games a week ago against Waltham. Two-way lineman Lorenzo Boschi, offensive lineman/middle linebacker Eric Nick and running back/linebacker Connor Sones have been very effective, a fact not lost on Gaff.

“They are playing really well,” Gaff said. “(Hoover and Carleton) are very good skill position players and they’re playing some great defense.”

Elsewhere on Saturday, Reading has been solid coming out of the gate and will get a chance to show they belong as a Middlesex League Liberty title contender when they travel to Woburn. Over in the ISL, Milton Academy hosts St. Sebastian’s in a pivotal early-season encounter.

Friday night, Xaverian looks to rebound after a tough loss at Springfield Central when it faces an improving Central Catholic squad. Another juicy nonleague contest pits a pair of undefeated teams in Wayland and Shawsheen.

An early-bird special has all the making of being a good one as Mashpee hosts Randolph (4 p.m. kickoff). St. Mary’s and Cathedral look to get the jump in the Catholic Central League as they meet at Manning Field.

Other good contests include Barnstable at Dennis-Yarmouth, Triton at North Reading, Methuen at Andover and Milton at Weymouth.