Exeter’s Leo Brown on precipice of Berks’ most cherished football record

By Mike Drago Last updated Nov 26, 2025

2025 Berks football coverage presented by

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David Gilmore knew that eventually someone would top his many rushing and scoring records.

“Someone’s gonna come along sooner or later,” he said after rushing for a Berks single-season record 2,403 yards as a senior at Central Catholic in 1983.

Turns out it’ll be later.

Forty-two years after his last carry Gilmore still stands at the top of the Berks single-season rushing list. In recent years four other running backs have topped 2,000 yards in a season. None came close to Gilmore’s mark.

Now, someone has: Exeter’s Leo Brown.

After rushing for 220 yards in a District 3 Class 5A playoff win over Conestoga Valley Friday Brown pushed his season total to 2,395 yards – roughly one average carry (for him) away from the record.

He needs 9 yards Friday in a district semifinal at Bishop McDevitt to pass Gilmore’s legendary mark – perhaps the most prestigious and oldest in the Berks football record book.

While Brown has averaged better than 199 yards per game, and over 9 yards per carry, nothing’s certain.

He saw that firsthand last season. Teammate Jayden Zander, who a week earlier had topped 2,000 yards, injured his ankle early in the district title game against Bishop McDevitt and was limited to four carries, and 4 yards. He finished his season with 2,093 yards, second-most in Berks history.

Brown blew by that mark with 269 yards in the district opener against Lower Dauphin.

Now he stands a carry, or two, maybe more, away from breaking Gilmore’s cherished record. It’s akin to Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record.

Maris detractors will point out, correctly, that he homered 61 times in 161 games in 1961 while Ruth homered 60 times in 151 games of a 152-game schedule in 1927. (The American League in 1961 increased its season length from 1952 to 162 games.)

There will be no such controversies here. If Brown breaks the record Friday it will be in his 13^th game, the same number Gilmore played when he led Central Catholic to the District 3 Class A championship. He ran for 156 yards on 34 carries in his final game.

Gilmore rushed for 100 or more yards in all 13 games that season. Brown has topped 100 in every game but one, the season-opener against Daniel Boone when he carried just four times for 91 yards. The Eagles were up 35-0 after one quarter and 64-0 at half; there was no need for him to touch the ball more than four times.

Gilmore topped 200 yards four times; Brown has done it six times, including five times in the last six weeks.

Each had his most prolific game in a key league showdown. Gilmore went for a then Berks-record 356 yards and six touchdowns in a midseason battle of Inter-County League unbeatens against Wyomissing. Brown went for 305 yards and two scores in a late-season Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 2 first-place battle against Conestoga Valley.

Gilmore had a much heavier workload: He had 30 or more carries four times, including in the final three games of the season: Against Holy Name in a battle for the Inter-County League title and against Annville-Cleona and Littlestown in the district playoffs. He averaged almost 26 carries per game.

Brown has had 30 or more carries three times and has averaged just over 20 carries per game. That average has been brought down by the fact that he had just five carries against winless Lebanon and 11 in an early season mercy-rule win over Pleasant Valley.

Brown has averaged 9.1 yards per carry; Gilmore averaged 7.1.

Gilmore had a Berks-record 37 touchdowns; Brown has 29.

Gilmore left with a Berks-record 4,288 career yards; it, like the most of his records, has been topped several times since, most recently by Governor Mifflin’s Nick Singleton.

Brown didn’t play football as a sophomore and didn’t get many chances as a junior because he was behind Zandier, a two-time All-State pick. Brown enters Friday’s game with 2,835 career yards.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of their seasons:

DAVID GILMORE			LEO BROWN
Opponent	Att.	Yards	Opponent	Att.	Yards
Bishop Hafey	9	140	Daniel Boone	4	91
Reading	29	127	Boyertown	30	151
Hamburg	17	105	Pl. Valley	11	140
Exeter	23	257	Mifflin	20	206
Muhlenberg	26	123	Lebanon	5	122
Weiser	21	244	Ephrata	24	179
Wyomissing	29	356	Muhlenberg	25	275
Kutztown	34	185	Hempfield	32	251
Daniel Boone	24	151	Con. Valley	29	305
Sch. Valley	17	158	Elizabeth.	30	156
Holy Name	34	171	L. Dauphin*	22	269
Ann.-Cleona*	39	230	Con. Valley*	28	220
Littlestown*	34	156	McDevitt
	336	2,403		264	2395

*District 3 playoffs.