There is only one Friday matchup on the Section IX board with two 3-0 teams.
No. 21 John S. Burke Catholic travels to No. 18 Highland at 7 p.m. Friday, and one of Week 3’s quietest games on paper may be one of its most important.
Both teams enter unbeaten. Both have been difficult to score against. And the available series between them is nearly even.
Open the Burke Catholic–Highland Game Center →
Burke has overwhelmed the games it has played
Burke Catholic is 3-0, with two on-field wins and an official forfeit victory. In the two games it has played, Burke has scored 111 points and allowed six: 55-0 over Monticello and 56-6 over Liberty.
That works out to 55.5 points per played game, 3.0 allowed and an average scoring margin of +52.5. The Week 2 game against O’Neill is recorded as a forfeit win and is not included in those scoring averages.
The numbers are loud. Friday is the first chance to see how that start translates against another unbeaten team.
Highland has built its own 3–0 start
Highland has taken a different route.
The Huskies opened with a 7-6 win at Wallkill, shut out Poughkeepsie 40-0 and then beat Rondout Valley 48-14. Through three played games, Highland is scoring 31.7 points per game, allowing 6.7 and winning by an average of 25 points.
The progression matters. Highland went from a one-point opener to consecutive wins by 40 and 34 points.
The series is almost even
KOT845 currently has 13 previous meetings between the programs indexed in the archive. Burke Catholic leads those available results 7-6.
Highland won the most recent meeting, 23-0 in 2025. Before that, Burke won 36-6 in 2023 and 56-21 in 2022.
There is also a scoring benchmark sitting inside Friday’s Game Center. Burke’s highest total against Highland in KOT845’s available records is 56, set in 2022. Highland’s available-series high against Burke is 34, set in 2015.
Why Friday matters
This is not a divisional playoff game — Burke competes in Class D and Highland in Class C — but it is a direct test between two undefeated Section IX teams that have built their starts on dominant score margins.
For Burke, Friday can provide the strongest on-field measurement of its season so far. For Highland, it is a chance to follow last year’s shutout of Burke with another win and move to 4-0.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Highland High School. KOT845 will track the game alongside the full 12-game Friday board through Game Night.
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