For fans of dramatic soccer games, this one was a dud.

For fans of high-scoring Georgetown wins over ranked opponents, Saturday’s 4-0 shutout was as exciting as they come.

Someone apparently forgot to tell No. 14 Seton Hall that this was an important game: the Big East season finale, a bid for home-field advantage in the conference tournament and a chance to impress the NCAA committee in charge of selecting the College Cup draws.

The Hoyas grasped the value of the matchup, turning in one of their strongest performances in one of the team’s most critical moments. After blowing games to Villanova and Pittsburgh, Georgetown needed a win to ensure a spot in the postseason and took care of that with aplomb.

“That’s the difference between this year and last year. We bounced back and put ourselves in a position where we can prepare for the tournament,” sophomore forward Ricky Schramm said.

With 16 points, the Hoyas (10-7-1, 5-4-1) clinched the fifth spot in the Big East tournament. Villanova (7-5-4, 5-3-2) took the fourth seed and gained home-field advantage in next Saturday’s quarterfinal showdown with the Hoyas.

After last year’s failure to qualify for the tournament, Georgetown appears happy to take any tournament opening.

“Since those two losses in a row, we’ve had four chances to clinch a spot, and we’ve waited till the end against maybe the toughest team,” Georgetown Head Coach Keith Tabatznik said.

The Seton Hall Pirates (11-6-1, 5-5-0), however, crumbled in the homestretch and will either take seventh or eighth place in the standings after having a chance on Saturday to clinch fourth.

This week’s makeup game between Connecticut and Providence will determine where the bottom four tournament qualifiers will sit in the final standings and who they will match up against in the quarterfinals.

“We have a week’s time to deal with it. In a week we can see what we need to do to get ourselves back in good spirits,” Seton Hall Head Coach Manfred Schellscheidt said.

Georgetown’s first win over a top-25 team this season failed to generate that much heat but satisfied the fans wanting to see the home team rack up goals on North Kehoe Field.

Both teams looked relatively unfocused in the first half, more interested in pushing each other around than setting up scoring chances. Even without much action near the goals, the Hoyas dominated possession and play for almost the entire game.

“The first half just became a real physical, chippy little battle, and there wasn’t a lot of soccer going on by either team,” Tabatznik said. “We said at halftime, `We’ve got to get back to playing soccer. The team that gets back to playing soccer will win the game.”

Things heated up less than five minutes into the second half when Schramm found the top left corner of the goal off a pass from sophomore midfielder Dan Grasso.

From there the Pirates faded away. Less than four minutes later, senior midfielder Dan Gargan headed a ball into the net with assists from Schramm and sophomore defender Tim Convey.

“The first goal changed everything, and that was really a disappointing goal to give up because we had all kinds of people around the ball, and nobody could get to it, no opportunities to get it out of there,” Schellscheidt said. “I think the game got decided with the first goal.”

In the next 10 minutes Seton Hall failed to fight back into the game. By the third Hoya goal, Convey’s header off a corner kick play in the 66th minute, the Pirates had no more hopes of coming back. Senior defender Paul Brandley closed the scoring with a shot to the right corner off a cross into the box in the 69th minute.

“A lot of our chances were within the six-yard box. Our coaches have been forcing us to be eager in there, and that’s how we scored,” Schramm said. “All of our goals were within 12 yards. That was the difference.”

Gargan headed in a fifth goal soon after. Amid the cheers, the referee declared him offside on the play. It did not matter, as Seton Hall had already taken the hint. The Pirates pulled most of their starters, and the game drifted for 20 more minutes until it reached its 4-0 conclusion.

Georgetown held a 20-10 edge on shots and connected on four of seven shots on goal. In contrast, the team scored once in 15 attempts against Villanova.

Another standout feature was the physicality in the first half. Each team left with three yellow cards apiece.

Hoya sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Kaszler made three saves for his fourth shutout this season. He was honored with Big East goalkeeper of the week accolades for his performance in the match. Senior defender Jeff Curtin was also honored by the Big East as defensive player of the week for his play against Seton Hall.

The Hoyas can now lay claim to the Big East scoring title, having taken care of second-highest scoring Seton Hall. The team has averaged 1.99 goals per game this year. But for Tabatznik, there’s a strong defense at the heart of the team’s heavy-hitting offense.

“We scored four goals, but defending was the reason we won,” he said. “We said that the team that would defend great would get the great chances.”

Georgetown will look to end on a high note against VMI today at 2 p.m. on North Kehoe Field in its final home game.