WELLS — As a first-year high school wrestler, Wells senior Charlie Taylor admits he’s still learning the ins and outs of the sport.

“I don’t know very many moves, so I just kind of go with it,” Taylor said. “I just do what I feel like would work.”

Whatever Taylor’s been doing, it’s been working, and that “go with it” approach paid dividends again on Wednesday night in Taylor’s 220-pound match against Bonny Eagle’s Lukkas Pierce during a tri-meet with the Scots and Westbrook.

After dominating the first period, Taylor showed his greenness in the second by allowing Pierce back into the match, and with 30 seconds remaining, Taylor was nearly flat on his back.

But just when he looked to be pinned, Taylor turned the tables, spotted an opening and reversed on Pierce to get the pin himself with four seconds remaining in the period.

“I guess that worked,” Taylor explained of the moment, “So I just stuck him.”

Taylor’s pin was one of nine on the night for the Warriors as they defeated Bonny Eagle 54-28 and Westbrook 48-30.

“If you look at matches you wrestle, you want to win the majority of them, and we did that today,” Wells coach Scott Lewia said. “We’ve got a small team, but we’ve got quality.”

No more so than in the 195-pound weight class, where Michael Curtis won both of his matches by pin in the first period on Wednesday.

It was simply more of the same for the junior, the defending Class B champion at 170 pounds who has seamlessly moved up in weight this winter, already winning major titles at the Atlantics, Noble and Nokomis tournaments.

“He’s a big kid, but he moves like a smaller kid. He’s very quick for his size,” Lewia said of Curtis. “Usually the kids in the upper weights don’t have the technique that he does, and that’s to his advantage.

“He won that final in overtime at Noble (against Marshwood’s Brett Gerry), which was one of the better matches I’ve seen in a long time. They were very evenly matched.”

Like Curtis, Wells’ Isaac Desrochers (120-pound) and Tommy Cryer (132-pound) won both of their matches by pin, while Colin Sevigney won his only match of the night in impressive style, opening up a 16-2 lead in the first period against Bonny Eagle’s Michael DeBaker in the 138-pound division before getting the pin early in the second.

Sevigney, the defending state champion at 126 pounds, had experienced a rare loss to an in-state rival at the Atlantics event, when he was defeated in the final by Biddeford standout Dominick Day.

That loss, Lewia said, has refocused the senior.

“I think he kind of lost the fun in wrestling at the beginning of the year,” Lewia said. “It was kind of like he was going through the motions. I told him, ”˜You’ve got to think back to when you started wrestling and why it was fun.’

“He puts a lot of work in, and I think he just lost sight of that. But I think losing helps; it gives you that fire back.”

Much like Sevigney and Curtis, Taylor has found success this season despite his inexperience, finishing third at the Atlantics, Noble and Nokomis tournaments.

Taylor gives a large portion of the credit for those results to Curtis, who he wrestles against every day at practice and who is largely responsible for Taylor wrestling this year in the first place.

“He’s really good, so he teaches me things. Pretty much every time I wrestle, I think to myself that I’m getting noticeably better, so if I stick with it, I might be pretty good by the end of the season,” Taylor said. “I kind of talked him into playing football, so he talked me into wrestling. It was a great decision, it’s a lot of fun.”

It’s a decision that, so far, is working out for everyone.

“I told (Taylor) that if we’d had him last year, we may have won the state title,” Lewia joked, referencing the fact that Wells was only 13.5 points behind champion Camden Hills at last year’s Class B state meet, despite not filling every weight class.

“He’s been a great addition. I’m glad he came out.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.