FAIRHAVEN – With the holiday season upon us, Justin Marques was set to deliver all the trimmings to break the all-time state touchdown record, but it was the senior’s late interception that saved the season’s greetings for Fairhaven.

In a stunning end to a great Division 6 Elite Eight playoff tilt, the defending Super Bowl champion Blue Devils escaped with a 36-34 overtime victory over No.6 Lynnfield as Marques picked off the two-point conversion try in overtime to seal things up.

Marques scored the first overtime touchdown and Fairhaven elected to go for the point-conversion and quarterback Cameron Burke didn’t disappoint the Blue Devils faithful for the eight-point lead and the thrilling win.

Along the way, Marques was electric with four of the five Blue Devils touchdown runs, including the lead score to set up the nail-biter theatrics and finished with a game-high 190 yards on an eye-popping 39 carries.

Lost for a moment in the frenzy of the finish, Marques started the night with 99 touchdowns and eclipsed the state career touchdown record with his third touchdown with 2:04 left in the third quarter. Ryan Izzo held the previous record back in 2010 with 101 touchdowns for Walpole and now the senior tailback gets to add to the tally next week against the winner of today’s quarterfinal against Swampscott and Stoneham (Saturday, 6:30pm).

Marques knew deep down it takes a village like Fairhaven to put the program on the state-record map.

“I don’t think it’s a ‘me’ record – I think it’s a ‘we’ record,” said Marques.

When asked about the fourth-and-goal from the two-yard line in the overtime period for the game-winner, Marques did not hesitate.

“Coach (Derek Almeida) had a great call with us on fourth down, season is on the line, and he put his trust in me, and I thank him for that, and it paid off for him.”

The game almost never made it to overtime as the Blue Devils needed nine lives to survive.

With 2:43 left in the game and faced with a fourth-and-eight from their own 34-yard line, Almeida decided to go for it with the score tied 28-28 and the Lynnfield (9-2) defense stuffed the attempt at the line of scrimmage for the turnover on downs and the season looked bleak for the Blue Devils.

Senior quarterback Tyler Adamo, who was electric all game with his arm and his legs, pulled over some late minute magic on third-and-sixteen from midfield and ran a run-pass option play and pitched the ball backwards to Jesse Dorman to get the ball down to the Blue Devils 24-yard line.

With less than a minute left, Adamo ran the ball to the middle of the field and called timeout to set up Massimo Lo Grasso for the 42-yard field goal to win the game. LoGrasso already hit a 50-yard field goal that was erased on a Pioneers’ penalty, but this try went wide left and sent the game into overtime.

“I’ve been in league play in a triple overtime game with Triton and we had some wild games with Amesbury in the playoffs, but there was nothing quite like this. You are going up against one of the better players in the state, good crowd, high intensity, lot of hitting, so I don’t think there has been anything quite like it,” said Lynnfield head coach Pat Lamusta, who was extremely complimentary of the entire Fairhaven team, especially the dynamic offense of Fairhaven. “Tyler has been phenomenal finding that grass all year, and we’ve leaned on him tremendously.”

Adamo can’t hang his head in this one as he finished with two touchdowns through the air and another on the ground on 16-of-25 passing for 269 yards in a tough loss.

Not to be forgotten was the tremendous performance of Fairhaven quarterback Cameron Burke. All Burke did was score the go-ahead touchdown with 8:55 left in regulation and after Marques punched in the go-ahead touchdown in overtime, Burke was handed the keys to the season on the game-winning two-point conversion.

Always seemingly in the Marques shadow, Burke finished with 177 yards on the ground and owned three big runs that were responsible for and keeps the season alive for the Blue Devils.

When asked about Marques and his impact along with the state touchdown record, Almeida had to pause from getting emotional.

“You are going to get me choked up. He’s just been an unbelievable kid in our program, he is unbelievable in school, he does the right things, he’s been a leader for us, and sets the tone in games,” said Almeida. “It’s a pretty cool moment and we talked as a team. I don’t know how many high schools are in the state, but we’ve been playing football here for a long time so to accomplish that record personally is unbelievable. But I also told our kids, there is the word Fairhaven after that record now too.”