Charles Nailen/The Hoya Junior midfielder Walid Hajj launches the ball toward the Knights’ net. He had one goal in the Hoya’s 8-4 victory Sunday afternoon on Harbin field.

For the No. 5 Georgetown men’s lacrosse team, Saturday’s game against No. 9 Rutgers presented it with an opportunity to make sure they were back on track. After suffering their first setback of the season the week before against No. 3 assachusetts, the Hoyas rebounded to defeat Mount St. Mary’s later that week. The Scarlet Knights, however, were a conference foe ranked in the top 10 that already owned several impressive victories, including one on the road against the defending national champion, No. 7 Syracuse. Saturday, Georgetown seized the opportunity, playing a solid overall game highlighted by stellar defense as usual and came away with an 8-4 victory over Rutgers before a crowd of 1,111 at Harbin Field.

With the win, Georgetown improved to 10-1 overall and closed out its conference schedule 4-1. If the Scarlet Knights are able to knock off the Minutemen this Saturday in Piscataway, N.J., the Hoyas will claim their third ECAC Conference title in the last four seasons. Rutgers fell to 9-4 overall and 2-2 in the ECAC.

Even if the Hoyas do not receive the conference’s automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament, Saturday’s victory over a top 10 team makes it far more likely that the Hoyas will receive an at-large berth to the 16-team tournament.

“I thought this game would be pivotal in terms of selections and seeding,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Urick said. “We have to play our way in and today we took a pretty significant step in that direction.”

The game was a tightly contested defensive contest throughout the first half. Senior midfielder Trevor Walker got the Hoyas off to good start with an unassisted goal less than two minutes into the game. Junior midfielder Walid Hajj followed with a running unassisted goal of his own a little more than two minutes later.

Rutgers regained its form later in the quarter, tying the score 2-2 with goals from junior midfielder Tim White and junior attackman Mathew Apel. Junior attackman Neal Goldman answered back for the Hoyas with their third unassisted goal of the quarter to put Georgetown on top 3-2 after one.

The defenses clamped down even further in the second quarter, with each back-line giving up just one goal as the Hoyas took a 4-3 lead into halftime. In the second half, the Scarlet Knights were unable to mount any consistent offensive attack while the Hoya offense did what it needed to do to allow Georgetown to pull away for the victory. Senior attackman Jordan Vettoretti scored twice for the Hoyas. Goldman and senior attackman Mike Hammer also scored as Rutgers never got closer than two goals in the second half.

“I was proud of the way they performed,” Urick said. “I was very concerned about this Rutgers team.”

The four goals was the Scarlet Knights’ lowest offensive output of the season. It was the sixth time this season that the Georgetown defense has held an opponent to five goals or less. Sophomore goalie Rich D’Andrea made nine stops. The Scarlet Knights were also hindered when their leading scorer entering the game, senior midfielder Jeff Duca, re-aggravated a hamstring injury and saw limited action the rest of the way. Senior defenseman Pat Collins was named ECAC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts Saturday and his play Wednesday against Mount St. Mary’s.