Just minutes after a regular season loss to then-undefeated Class B Bucksport, George Stevens Academy coach Steve Bemiss warned that his team’s losing record was deceptive.

As it turns out, Bemiss knows his girls soccer team pretty well.

The Eagles of Blue Hill are the lowest seed left in state. Ranked 11th in the final Eastern Maine Class C standings, GSA knocked off No. 3 Searsport in the quarterfinals Saturday and will face No. 2 Lee in a semifinal at 2:30 p.m. today.

George Stevens, which finished the regular season with a 4-9-1 record, wouldn’t be where it is now without the new open tournament.

Bemiss said he liked the idea of the open tournament by which all teams are invited to participate in the playoffs, when it was announced. The Eagles have taken advantage of it.

“The past couple of years we’ve been just out of the money,” he said Monday. “This year they changed the color of the money.”

George Stevens topped 14th-ranked Limestone in the first round of the tournament. The Eagles upset No. 6 Penobscot Valley of Howland in the second round and beat Searsport for the first time this season.

It’s a pattern that started about seven games into the season, as GSA closed the gap between the goals they allowed and goals scored. In GSA’s first game against Bucksport, the Golden Bucks won 7-1, but had to rally to win the second game 4-1. Against Class B Ellsworth, George Stevens lost the first game 3-0 but dropped the second game 1-0.

“We’ve improved. I think we’re a far better team,” Bemiss said. “It took a whole season where it might have taken another coach a few weeks, but we have the open tournament.”

In the playoffs the Eagles have outscored their opponents 13-3. Three players – juniors Kerri Driscoll and Sarah Clapp and freshman Bethany Roberts – have each scored three goals in the playoffs, with senior Astrid Brouillard adding two in Saturday’s quarterfinal.

That’s also an improvement over the season and the past few years.

“George Stevens teams traditionally have had a real problem putting the ball in the net,” Bemiss said. “I don’t have a [player like Lee Academy forward] Deidra Ham, but I have a lot of players who are pretty dangerous.”

Giving up just three goals in the three postseason games has been the result of tough play by goalies Jamie Wood and Sarah Kilch, along with sophomore defenders Nicole Boutin, the sweeper, and Ana Osage, the stopper.

Part of GSA’s success may be its schedule, which resembles that of a Class B team. The Eagles had no easy games this year.

George Stevens faced four of the best Eastern Maine Class B teams in then-undefeated Bucksport, Mount Desert Island, Ellsworth and John Bapst of Bangor, plus three tough Class C teams: Searsport, Penobscot Valley and Sumner of East Sullivan.

King on the mend

Old Town junior Meghan King is such a competitor that after she injured her knee in the second game of the soccer season she went back in because she wanted to score a goal.

Turns out that wasn’t a smart thing to do.

“I took a couple of shots and I had to come out,” she said. “My leg felt like Jello.”

As it turns out, King had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee. She had surgery Oct. 13 and could miss up to the next nine to 12 months of sports.

For someone like King, who sat in a wheelchair on the sidelines during last Tuesday’s girls soccer playoff against John Bapst, the waiting is tough. With the eighth-ranked Indians’ upset over No. 1 Bucksport Saturday, she’ll get to watch them in the semifinals, too.

There’s no ice hockey in the near future and probably no catching for the softball team. She could be healthy enough to play third base or serve as a designated hitter, but the kneeling required for her favorite position would rule out playing behind the plate.

“It’s really frustrating,” King said.