(KTNC) - Falls City Sacred Heart built a big lead early and rolled to a 74-0 shutout of Deshler in a Class D2 football game Thursday night.  

The Irish put two touchdowns on the board before the offense even got on the field.  On Deshler's opening possession, Irish linebacker Brandon Schawang picked off a pass from quarterback Ashton Oakman and raced 17 yards for a touchdown to stake the Irish to a 7-0 lead with 10:30 left in the first quarter.  After Sacred Heart forced a three-and-out on the Dragons' next possession, Austin Malone returned the punt 35 yards to paydirt to make the score 14-0 less than three minutes into the game.

The Irish offense finally got on the field after another Deshler turnover gave Sacred Heart the ball on the Dragon 16 yard line.  Two plays later, senior QB Chaz Dunn found Colin Niemeyer in the end zone for a 10 yard touchdown pass to put Sacred Heart up by three touchdowns.  Dunn connected with Sean Strasheim on a 12 yard scoring toss on the Irish's next possession to make the score 28-0 with 4:14 remaining in the first quarter.

The Irish added two more scores in the first quarter.  Zavan Kirkendall gave the defense its second TD of the game when he picked up a Deshler fumble and ran about 10 yards into the end zone.  Sawyer Kean then sprinted through the Dragon defense for a 45 yard score with 1:32 left in the first, and Sacred Heart led 41-0 after one quarter.  The Irish scored their 41 first quarter points on just five offensive plays.

Sacred Heart scored three touchdowns in the second quarter.  Dunn found Yianni Haralsbidis in the end zone on a five yard touchdown pass to cap a nine play, 49 yard drive to put Sacred Heart up 48-0 with 7:52 left in the first half.  That was the final play of the game for Sacred Heart's first team offense.

Henry Arnold scored touchdowns on runs of 48 and 44 yards to put Sacred Heart up 60-0 at halftime.

The Irish added single scores in the third and fourth quarters.  Cameron Barker scored a touchdown on a two yard run in the third quarter, and Arnold finished the scoring with a 79 yard touchdown run in the fouth quarter.

Deshler, which was playing the game with only eight players in uniform, nearly got on the board in the fourth quarter.  They had a first and goal at the Irish one yard line, but Oakman threw four straight incomplete passes and Deshler turned the ball over on downs.  The third down pass was deflected when the intended receiver, Sean Jones, collided with the umpire in the end zone.

For the game, Arnold finished with 172 yards rushing on six carries.  Chaz Dunn completed 11 of 12 passes for 101 yards and three touchdowns.  

Deshler QB Ashton Oakman completed 10 of 27 passes for 82 yards in the game.  Sacred Heart's defense held Deshler to minus-16 yards rushing, the second week in  a row the Irish held an opponent to negative yards rushing.

Sacred Heart ends the regular season 8-0 for the second year in a row, while Deshler ends the season at 0-8.