It was the Tyler LaFlamme show at Chattahoochee High School Friday night. LaFlamme had 32 carries for 416 yards and five touchdowns—not a typo—in a 42-34 win.

“I’ve been doing this 24 years and never gave a game ball out in my life,” South coach Jeff Arnette said. “I just gave my first one out.”

LaFlamme averaged 13 yards per carry. He had nine carries of 20-plus yards with a long of 49.

“It was unbelievable,” Arnette said. “Probably single-game as good of a performance as you can get.”

“We got out here and we knew we had to step it up,” LaFlamme said. “O-line and everybody stepped it up. Came out here, turned it up and came out on top.”

The night didn’t start out well for South as Chattahoochee scored three touchdowns on its first three possessions to jump out to a 21–7 lead.

“They took us back a little bit,” Arnette said. “It took us a minute to get a hold of the game.”

LaFlamme got his first touchdown early in the second quarter, and a safety on a blocked punt drew South within five points heading into the half.

“I told them it’s 21-16 and we have not played our best football,” Arnette said. “As many punches as they threw at us, we were still in the game.”

That’s when LaFlamme took over.

After a 53-yard kickoff return by Drew Witalis put the War Eagles in Chattahoochee territory, quarterback Matthew White handed the ball off to LaFlamme on all six plays of the 42-yard touchdown drive to open the second half.

White did that a lot as he only dropped back to pass twice in the second half; he had no reason to throw it with LaFlamme running the way he was. LaFlamme was the hot hand and the coaching staff just kept handing him the rock.

“If we could, we would run him all the time. He’s just that good,” Arnette said “He’s had some issues with being sick during the game the last two or three weeks so we’ve not been able to run him as much as we want to.”

In fact, LaFlamme was not even 100 percent for this game — the senior dealt with stomach issues on the sideline between plays.

South ran the ball 47 times to only 12 passes, so it was no secret what the War Eagles were going to do on offense. Chattahoochee still could not stop them.

“Offensive line was absolutely unbelievable,” Arnette said.

Chattahoochee remained close because of three lost fumbles by South, two of them inside the Cougars 5-yard line.

Chattahoochee also recovered an onside kick in the third quarter, but they were unable to repeat that feat with 1:29 to go in the game when none other than Tyler LaFlamme recovered the ball to seal it for South.