Evergreen's coming up roses for the Wolverines thus far in football.

Everyone they've played and everything they've done has been pitch perfect, and, a 5-0 season record (3-0 in the Seamount League) sings that heavenly sound, including their latest team sent packing, Mount Rainier, 54-6, Friday at Highline Memorial Field.

There's a reason indeed why the Wolverines were less than perfect last year in the Seamount, a lot less than perfect. They had a less than .500 record -- three wins, to be exact.

What is the reason for a super start to the season? Experience? Team? Chemistry?

Yes, yes, yes.

And, it's no surprise to second-year head coach Shaun Tarantola.

"We knew we had a group of kids that wanted to win," he said. "We knew we had great team chemistry."

Players like Luther Leonard, the team's junior 6-2, 180 quarterback, is back and he speaks of that experience factor right now.

"When you have a year in the offense, it helps out a whole lot," he said.

Leonard has thrown for 11 touchdown passes already this season, hitting five different receivers with those strikes, to explain this team's depth and his ability to work with a lot of others. Players like senior, 5-11, 225 fullback Tobias Togi, a captain like Leonard, and successful in his element of running the football where he's scored six running TD's this season, add dimension to the offense. Togi, too, was on the team last year that experienced a lot of bad experiences on the football field.

Those are just a couple names of experience. There are others to mention that really brew the chemistry, like a good refrigerated plate of spaghetti noodle leftovers stuck with sauce.

Senior Kelemete, jr, a 6-3 245 lineman, Tony Tupuo, sr, a 6-0 225 lineman, Siliva Tapu, jr, a 5-10 240 lineman, Malu Leiato, sr, 5-11 290 lineman, Jordan Maulolo, so., 6-2 255 lineman, Randal Henderson, sr, 5-11 220, Tim Miller, sr, 5-7 155.

The win over the Rams was a good win. The Wolverines scored just about every time they had the ball in the first two quarters. The Rams did make it interesting early on, matching the Wolverines' first score of Leonard finding Kirt Terry-Springs for 31 yards in the end zone. The Rams' quarterback, Craig Robinson, then found Ezon James, a 6-0 170 junior and their star wide receiver, for a 23-yard pass play. But the Rams did nothing after that. The only difference in the score thus far was the Rams' kicker missing the extra point and Peter Santie making the point-after for the green and gold Wolverines. The Wolverines did so much on defense and that was the key said Tarantola, who was asked to give a player of the game award.

"We are scoring a lot of points but our defense and defensive coordinator, Andy Arenas, have shut the other teams down," said Tarantola. "I would give a player of the game award to five guys. The starting offensive line, they gave our quarterback protection.

Tapu, Leiato, Kelemete, Maulolo and Lafasa.

The team was great on offense, too. Leonard had a lot of yards before the second quarter ended -- 198 yards by halftime to be exact. The score was 41-6 at halftime and there's never been a comeback by a team likely in high school history at any classification. And nothing would be done here for sure.

After Leonard had hit Terry-Springs for another TD, a 27-yard connection, that made it 14-6, still in the first quarter, and Togi ran the next score in from 20 yards away to make it 21-6 still in the first quarter. It was over just about when Leonard hooked up with Henderson for a 21-yard TD pass play that made it 28-6 early in the second quarter. Santie made five of six point-after tries in this game, by the way.

The Wolverines' defense stopped the Rams' offense beginning the second quarter and Leonard was at it again, getting TD toss number four only five minutes into the second quarter. Charles Webster was Leonard's recipient on that one. Then, to make it the halftime score it was, Phong Nguyen ran the ball in on first and goal from the 1-yard line.

About the best highlight of the game for the Rams, besides their TD score, came next when James ran the kickoff 15 yards. But that was it and the Wolverines scored two more after halftime. Togi, a 25-yard run and Nuve Kongaika, a 26-yard run into the end zone.

One other good highlight for the Rams was when freshmen, Iike Jennings, lowered this head and stuck a Wolverines running back that lay on the field at least a couple minutes.

Jennings is the future of the Rams which have a lot of things to look forward to, and, in a sense, are really a lot like the same position of the Wolverines last year. They this year have a first-year coach, Mike Kluklenski, and are learning their offense as they go from that new experience for all involved. A lot of their skill position players, including their quarterback, Craig Robinson, are underclassman. Robinson's a junior and James is a sophomore and Dionte Cadogan, another fleet-footed Ram runner, is a sophomore. One more good player still to return this season is Oscar Eason, a sophomore skill position player and starter for the Rams.