DELBARTON -— The Gilbert High School Lions had trouble holding onto the ball Friday night, but they didn’t let that stop them from beating the Burch High School Bulldogs, 20-0, in Delbarton.

The Lions fumbled the ball nine times, losing three to Burch in the game.

What -- or rather who -- they did stop was Jacob Butcher, the Bulldogs’ freshman standout, as the Gilbert defense held the running back to just 13 yards on 14 carries.

While the defense blanked the offense, the Lions’ offense scored three touchdowns and added a two-point conversion to get the win.

The first Gilbert score came on the Lions’ second possession of the game, when, on the fourth play of the drive, Josh Carter punched in the two-yard touchdown to make it 6-0 with 3:48 left in the first quarter.

The Lions scored their second TD at the 6:59 mark in the second quarter wen Carter ran in the five-yard score and Josh Dingess added the two-point conversion to give Gilbert a 14-0 lead.

Gilbert tacked on the insurance touchdown early in the fourth quarter when Cody Houck rambled 17 yards to paydirt to set the final score.

Despite the win, Gilbert Coach Gordon Carter was not pleased with his team’s performance.

“We’ve turned the ball over and got too many penalties in the last three games,” Coach Carter said. “It was a lack of concentration and, the last three games, that’s pretty much how we played.

“Burch played us hard. They have a lot of young kids playing.”

The Bulldogs threatened to score only once in the game.

Burch mounted a nine-play drive in the second quarter that took them all the way down to Gilbert’s 3-yard line. The drive stalled and on fourth and goal from the three, quarterback Ryan Hatfield’s pass to Jacob Stratton fell incomplete in the end zone as Gilbert took over on downs.

Carter said his gameplan coming into the contest was to Butcher from reaching the endzone.

“We knew that to beat them, we had to shut him down,” Coach Carter said. “He’s about the only running back they have. He’s going to be a good one, though. He’s a dandy little player. If he was on a better team, he’d be pretty good right now. Burch just don’t have any offensive linemen that can block anybody to give him room to run. I’d sure like to have him at Gilbert.”

Coach Carter said Dingess ran the ball hard.

“It was one of those situations where we’d run the heck out of it and then we had the ball back to Burch. We haven’t played well for three weeks -- since the Westside game.”

Gilbert was led by Dingess with 126 yards and a two-point conversion on 17 carries. Next was Josh Carter with 115 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. Houck rushed nine times for a touchdown and 104 yards. Quarterback Ashton Cline ran the ball four times for 18 yards.

In the air, Cline completed 2-of-8 passes for 18 yards. His longest completion was to Houck for 12 yards.

Burch Coach James “Butch” Joplin said he’s proud of his boys for playing so tough against a good Gilbert team.

“They had plenty of chances to lay down for Gilbert, but they didn’t,” Joplin said. “Gilbert is a tough, strong and physical team. My little Dogs hung in there with them and I’m proud of them. The score says they ran over top of us, but, no, anybody here watching this game knows that they didn’t run over top of us, as big and physical as they are.”

Burch was led by Cody Crum with 86 yards on nine carries. He caught two passes for 23 yards and made three solo tackles and one assist. Next was Butcher with 13 yards on 14 carries, while Trevor Woolum rushed twice for nine yards. Gabriel Vinson caught three passes for 25 yards and made four tackles and 11 assists.

In the air, Hatfield completed 7-of-11 passes for 76 yards. Jacob Stratton also caught a pass for 11 yards. Hatfield also caught one pass -- his own -- when a Gilbert player batted his pass into the air and Hatfield jumped up and caught it himself.

On defense for Burch, Brandon Estep had two tackles and seven assists, Mason Conley had two tackles and three assists, Jon Varney had two tackles and a two assists, A.D. Muncy had one tackle and five assists, Mike Burke had a tackle and an assist, Austin Dempsey and Troy Starr each had a tackle, Woolum had seven assists, Alex Evans had four assists and Hatfield and Brandon King had one assist apiece. Butcher and Evans each recovered a fumble for Burch.

The Dogs were forced to punt the ball six times and turned it over three times on downs. They fumbled the ball three times, losing one to Gilbert.

The Lions improve to 3-2 on the year and return to action next week hosting Big Creek.

Burch falls to 2-3 and will host Williamson at Phil Sizemore Stadium in Delbarton on Friday.