HERMON – A few years ago Brandi Winters was a middle school student sitting on the bench for the George Stevens girls soccer team as the scorekeeper.

Little did she know at the time, but keeping track of the goal scorers would be the easiest job she’d have for the Eagles of Blue Hill.

Now a junior on this year’s team, Winters has been moved around the soccer field more than the ball sometimes.

In fact, GSA’s starting lineup has been in flux all season with the exception of goalie Kayla Eaton, who has actually stayed in her position all season. Who knows who will start where when the Eastern Maine Class C champion Eagles face North Yarmouth Academy for the state title Saturday?

GSA coach Steve Bemiss said he’s had five different girls play sweeper, four try the stopper position, four who have played center halfback in a three-player midfield alignment, two more at center half in a four-player midfield, and seven different people on the front line.

“And it’s never been a big deal, like, ‘I don’t want to do that,'” he said. “I think that’s the biggest asset of the team right now, their versatility and flexibility.”

Winters is probably an extreme example. She has played sweeper and stopper, forward and halfback.

“Everyone on the field except our goalie can play anywhere,” she said. “We’ve switched around a lot because we’ve been marking a lot. We put our best defender on their best player. I’d say we do it [depending] on the competition.”

Chelsea Duddy has moved around a lot, from halfback to marking back. Hilary Thibodeau has switched positions, several times, too.

Things are a bit more stable now that the Eagles are in the playoffs, except Winters has moved, of course, from forward to center halfback.

The flexibility of the team is also reflected in its scoring. The Eagles have only put in 24 goals over 17 games, but the scoring has been widely distributed. GSA’s top two scorers are Winslow Brokaw and Winters, who have seven goals each and were both named to the Penobscot Valley Conference first team.

Sadie Beardsworth has two game-winning goals, Bemiss said, while Laura Overton has a game-winner and a game-tying goal. Duddy scored her first career goal Saturday – the game-tying goal in the Eastern Maine final against Madawaska.

“It’s interesting because this year we don’t have that one person we can look to for shots,” Winters said. “I think that has a lot to do with the versatility of the team. We can mark [the other team’s best player] and they don’t have very much, but with us not having one set [scorer] it makes it hard for the other team to shut us down.”

And it’s interesting what has happened with the different moves in the starting lineup. Bemiss tried sweeper Robin Rioux up in the center halfback position, but the Eagles struggled to four losses and two ties in the opening weeks of the season.

So Rioux went back to sweeper, which is where she played last year.

“We found out we were much better with her back at sweeper and that’s where we turned things around,” Bemiss said.

Indeed, the Eagles have lost just one game since the midpoint of the season and recorded key wins over Class B Bucksport and Class C rival Penobscot Valley of Howland, and tied Class B Ellsworth. And GSA has beaten No. 1 Searsport, No. 2 Madawaska, and No. 4 Washington Academy of East Machias in the playoffs.

“They grew up a lot in their last seven games and in their last four they’ve beaten people in front of us,” Bemiss said.