Wells senior Jude Nolan runs to the outside on a 79-yard TD run against Lincoln. (Photo by Austin White)

PORTLAND – There was no better post-game choice for Ida B. Wells football on Friday night at home.

After a 38-23 win over Southwest Portland rival Lincoln to secure the Portland Interscholastic League title, “Hey Jude” by The Beatles was blaring from the speakers.

And that was for senior quarterback Jude Nolan.

The QB ran for 107 yards with three touchdowns, including a 79-yarder in the second quarter, and had a passing TD right before halftime.

Mix in three recovered fumbles off of Lincoln junior Antayus Wilkins, 6A’s leader rusher through eight weeks, and the Guardians had a complete performance to take home their third PIL title in four years.

“Last week was Lucius (Coon against Grant), this week is Jude,” Wells head coach Robby Scharf said after being soaked with the traditional Gatorade bath. “The two unsung guys had their moment in the two biggest games of the year. You can hear the ‘Hey Jude’ right now, it’s his.”

Wells finishes the season at a perfect 9-0 and 8-0 in the PIL, its first undefeated regular season since 2003.

“It means so much because our school is supposed to be under construction after this game, but we’re earning ourselves another home game next week,” Nolan said, referring to the new building set to begin construction on the football field in December. “It just means all the more for the school, the community, for me and for our team.”

Nolan and crew set the tone from the game’s opening possession when they methodically marched down the field in the vaunted Wells power-T offense.

The drive took 9 minutes, 31 seconds and ended with a 5-yard Nolan TD run, followed by a two-point conversion on a run by senior Kannon Walter to make it 8-0 Guardians.

Lincoln was moving the ball well on its first possession, but a forced fumble by Wells senior Wesley Sims recovered by Walter ended the threat.

A few plays later, it was the biggest run of the night when Nolan ran to the outside, got a block on the lone Lincoln tackler out there and cut upfield with nothing but open turf down the sideline for a 79-yard TD. The failed two-pointer left it at Wells 14-0.

“I saw my guy Yassin (Birya), he got a great block on the edge,” Nolan said of the play. “Got outside and the rest is history. Had to get out of there quick.”

Lincoln once again had some good chunk runs on the ensuing possession, but the drive stalled near midfield and the Cardinals turned it over on downs with 3:23 left in the half.

That was plenty of time for Wells to find a way back to the end zone, this time using a couple passing plays.

The second passing play though was the big one. Nolan faked the handoff and Birya snuck out from behind the line and was wide open on the nearside of the field for an easy 25-yard catch and score.

The two connected on the two-point conversion as well to make it 22-0 Wells with only 22 seconds left in the half.

“Jude is a dog, he puts in the work every single day at practice,” Wells senior Oliver Hamzaoui said. “He knows what to do. When I don’t know what to do, he helps me. When other people don’t know what to do, he helps them. He’s just awesome, the best quarterback you could look for.”

“Joel Magill, our offensive coordinator, was my high school head coach at Amity, and that play, when it was structured a little bit differently, was called throwback,” Scharf said. “We’ve barely repped it all year, and he said, ‘It’s open, do you trust me? Of course I’m going to trust you’ Throw it, wide open. It’s incredible.”

However, the Cardinals weren’t going down without a fight, and they finally threw a punch on the ensuing kickoff.

Senior Greyson Murff picked a bouncing ball off the turf at the 5-yard line, cut across upfield and broke through some arm tackles down the far sideline for a 95-yard kickoff-return TD, his third of the season.

Auden Rose ran in the two-pointer to make it 22-8 Wells at halftime.

Lincoln got the ball to start the second half and worked its way slowly down the field, scoring on a 5-yard TD run by Wilkins to cut the deficit to 22-15 with 5:58 left in the third.

However, the Cardinals simply didn’t have much of an answer on defense as Wells returned the favor on the next drive, going 73 yards and capping it with Nolan’s third rushing TD of the night from six yards out. Nolan hit Coon for the two-point conversion to make it a 30-15 Wells lead with 21 seconds left in the third.

“It was maybe the greatest moment I’ve ever experienced in my entire life,” Nolan said. “This game just means all the more to me. It’s my senior year, doing it for my brothers, I’ve been with this team for so long. It just means everything to me, seriously.”

With Lincoln driving again on the legs of Wilkins, it was senior Omar Elkhodr stripping the ball out from behind on Wilkins, which was then recovered by sophomore Carter Rupley to get the ball back to Wells.

The Guardians were pushed back and eventually forced to punt, but it wasted precious time for Lincoln.

On the ensuing possession, it was another Wilkins fumble, this one recovered by Ronan Eikanas and returned 34 yards to the Lincoln 23-yard line.

“Those guys, I can’t put them into words,” Nolan said of the defense. “They’re just out there every single day, working hard at practice. Then we get into Friday and they’re just dogs, nothing else matters.”

“Lincoln has a bunch of great offensive linemen, great running back, great quarterback, so it’s hard playing against that team,” Hamzaoui said. “The defense locked in all week long. When it was defensive practice time, they put in the work and they did what they had to do today.”

A couple plays later, Birya took a run to the far side and broke through some tacklers at the line and raced off to a 22-yard TD to seal the win up 38-15 with just 5:23 to go.

Lincoln responded with a TD drive that was capped by a 1-yard Rose run, and then Rose hit Koa Austin for the two-pointer to make it 38-23.

With only 3:12 left in the game though, Wells took the ball back and ran out the clock to climb back to the top of the PIL after winning the league crown in 2023 and 2024.

“This is the best feeling ever, a lot of things have stuck with me from last year, losing all those games to Roosevelt and Lincoln,” Hamzaoui said. “I remember telling myself all summer, ‘Remember how it felt,’ especially after that Lincoln loss.

“Seeing the hard work pay off, it’s amazing. And there’s still so much to put in, but it feels great, like I can smell the food cooking up.”

Wells racked up 351 rushing yards on the night, 392 total, led by Nolan with 107 of them. Coon, who went for over 200 last week in a win over Grant that helped set up the PIL title clash with Lincoln, had 72. Birya had 49 rushing yards with a TD, plus 25 yards and a TD receiving.

Scharf made sure to single out senior Ethan Hoover as well, who has a torn ACL but suited up the game and got in for a play and made a tackle.

For Lincoln, Wilkins led the way with 92 rushing yards and a TD, but the three costly fumbles. Rose had 55 rushing yards and a TD plus 132 passing yards. Murff had 17 receiving yards and five rushing yards to go with his kickoff return.

For Wells, the title is the Guardians 10th PIL title all-time and improves their record in the SW Portland rivalry matchup to 37-21-1. 

But most importantly, they get to keep the lights on for at least one more week in the playoffs with the new school building set to begin construction on the field following the fall season.

“These kids have been through so much their entire experience, to get here and to have this moment, it’s storybook man,” Scharf said. “This senior class, I can’t put enough good words on who they are as people, and this result shows it.”