By Tom O’Brien

NEFJ Staff

MILFORD — Fairhaven workhorse running back Justin Marques was borderline unstoppable in Fairhaven’s 42-13 Division 6 Final Four win over Swampscott. The Blue Devils star back was responsible for all six of Fairhaven’s touchdowns.

“Justin’s a great kid. He’s really done a lot in his four years with the program. He established himself as one of the premier kids in the state,” said Fairhaven head coach Derek Almeida. “He puts his work in he really prepares and knows what he’s doing and then it’s not surprising when he comes out and dominates like this.”

Fairhaven set the tone right from the opening kickoff. The Blue Devils controlled the line of scrimmage and relied heavily on the ground game. Marques opened scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run to go up 7-0.

“Our workhorse back he was the guy tonight and we fed him the ball and big credit to that offensive line,” Almeida said.

Swampscott responded with a few plays, but ultimately could not come away with points and turned the ball over on downs.

Fairhaven would come right back out with its running game and fed Marques on its next drive. He then took it in again for his second touchdown of the night where the lead grew to 13-0.

On its next drive, the Swampscott offense finally started to hit its stride. Sophomore quarterback John Von Barta got walloped by a Fairhaven defender as Henry Beuttler walked into the end zone, cutting the lead to 7 at 13-6 by the end of the first quarter.

Marques did what Marques does by scoring his third touchdown of the night to open the second quarter, putting the Blue Devils up 21-7.

Swampscott finally found some rhythm on offense. Von Barta drove down the field inside the red zone, but came away empty on a turnover on downs when Von Barta’s pass fell incomplete.

One drive later, more of the same. Marques found the end zone for his fourth touchdown of the half to send Fairhaven into the half up 28-6.

Swampscott went three-and-out to open up its opening drive of the second half.

On Fairhaven’s opening drive Marques found the end zone for the fifth time to put Fairhaven up 35-6.

Swampscott’s offensive problems continued as Big Blue went three-and-out on back-to-back possessions.

Fairhaven got the ball back inside the Swampscott 30 but came up empty with a turnover on downs a few plays later.

Swampscott got the ball back and the offense finally started to click until Von Barta threw an interception to Cam Burke.

Marques wasted little time making Swampscott pay by taking it in for his sixth touchdown on the night to put Fairhaven up 42-6.

Von Barta hit Jameson O’Keefe with a screen pass for a 15-yard touchdown to cut the deficit to 42-13 with three minutes left and a running clock.

“I just think it was an overall team win,” Almeida said. “Really happy with how we played today. I think we dominated the game at the line of scrimmage. Our kids up front were unbelievable on both sides of the ball,”

Fairhaven controlled and dominated this game with a powerful rushing game, stout performance on defense, and winning up front on the offensive line.

“The team performance was everything, our offensive line was the reason we won that game today. They played as tough as they can for us.” said Justin Marques when asked about the team performance.

“I’m proud of their effort proud of how they work. Happy to be back. I think they’ve earned it,” Almeida said about advancing back to Gillette.

Fairhaven comes back to Gillette Stadium to face Hudson in the Division 6 Super Bowl.