Brown adds even more firepower to Smyrna backfield

With a first-team All-State quarterback and running back returning from a DIAA Division I state championship team, everyone knew the Smyrna offense was going to be hard to stop this season.

Now, the Eagles have added another end-zone-seeking missile. Running back Leddie Brown has made Smyrna even more dynamic, scoring 10 touchdowns in three different ways over the first three games.

QB Nolan Henderson and RB Will Knight are still playing their dominant roles as the top-ranked Eagles (3-0) have been unstoppable so far, averaging an eye-popping 60 points per game.

“He just adds size, strength and speed, and it really helps open the game up for me, Will and the outside guys,” Henderson said of Brown. “It just makes my job a lot easier.”

Brown has rushed for three scores, caught five touchdown passes and returned two kicks all the way for Smyrna. He got the Eagles off to a flying start last Friday night, taking the opening kickoff 97 yards against fourth-ranked Salesianum.

“I felt great,” Brown said. “I just wanted to bring my team up, bring the energy up, get the crowd going and everything.”

He did all of that. The junior shook off a hit at the 30, stepped past another Sallies defender at midfield and got the Eagles on the board just 14 seconds into the game.

“That just added even more energy than we already had,” Henderson said. “It just got the energy high, and we were ready after that.”

Smyrna’s Leddie Brown leaves Joseph Gormley and the rest of the Salesianum defense behind on the way to one of his three first-quarter touchdowns last Friday night.

Smyrna built a 52-6 lead late in the second quarter and cruised to a 60-26 victory over the team the Eagles nipped in overtime, 32-26, in last year’s D-I title game. Brown scored Smyrna’s first three touchdowns, hauling in TD passes of 42 and 16 yards from Henderson later in the first quarter.

“He’s an unbelievable athlete, and Leddie has taken a lot of the pressure off of Will from a defensive perspective,” Smyrna coach Mike Judy said. “When teams would easily hone in on Will, now they can’t. You have to game plan for both of them. They’re both in positions in our offense that can hurt you, quickly.”

Brown, a junior who transferred from Eastern Christian Academy in Elkton, Md., has rushed nine times for 97 yards and three touchdowns, caught eight passes for 244 yards and five scores, returned four kickoffs for 270 yards and two TDs and run back three punts for 53 yards.

Knight, who rushed for 2,015 yards and accounted for 38 touchdowns and 51 two-point conversions as a sophomore last season, has easily adjusted to sharing the load with Brown. The state’s reigning Offensive Player of the Year has 15 carries for 198 yards and four scores, eight catches for 211 yards and a touchdown and 15 more two-point conversions already.

“They’re sharing the joy of playing in this offense, and sharing the carries and the touches,” Judy said. “I think it will go a long way toward Will’s longevity and health, and to Leddie’s longevity and health.”

Both Brown and Knight can run or catch, so they can both be in the backfield or have one at running back and the other at receiver. Henderson can get the ball to either of them in a variety of ways.

“We run a lot more two-back formations,” Judy said after the Salesianum game. “We didn’t show it tonight, but we showed it in the other games. We do some things because both of those kids are special, both in the run game and the throwing game. We try to feature them.”

Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ.