The men’s soccer team grabbed some valuable points at home Saturday with a double-overtime 2-2 draw against nationally ranked St. John’s University.

The Blue Demons got off to a shaky start after an unassisted goal less than seven minutes into the first half, but recovered well to stabilize the game. Moments later, a free kick set up the opportunity for junior Koray Yesilli to score his first goal of the season off a header. Yesilli was just happy his team was right back in the game.

“It doesn’t matter who scores,” Yesilli said. “We play as a team and I’m just happy I could help out the team like that.”

The team took Yesilli’s goal as an opportunity to bounce back and played a hard first half against St. John’s. Both teams had several quality chances at finding the back of the net but the goaltenders were solid. Eric Sorby, senior goalkeeper and team captain, went into Saturday’s matchup riding a two-game shutout streak and allowing only one goal in his previous three games for DePaul.

“He keeps us in every game,” head coach Craig Blazer said after the game. “We need our guys to step up and have heroics like his.”

Sorby finished the first half with two saves that allowed for the Blue Demons to take a 2-1 lead late in the half off a header from freshman Jake Rawlings. The Ohio native also scored his first goal of the season and credits Yesilli for being right there when the team needed to grab some momentum.

“It was a big one going into halftime,” Rawlings said. “Koray told me to go up and placed it right where it needed to be to help us out there.”

DePaul didn’t score through a rough and wild second half. St. John’s aggressively came out of halftime looking to even the score and put pressure on Sorby, who was last week’s Big East Goalkeeper of the Week. They succeeded, scoring 78 minutes into the game to tie the match at two goals apiece.

The high-intensity game remained so through two overtime periods before the final seconds ticked off the clock and the teams drew even. Each team received two yellow cards throughout the duration of the game and DePaul ended up with 17 fouls to St. John’s nine.

The Blue Demons put on a great match for some special alumni in attendance for the game. Former DePaul men’s soccer stars including Antonio Aguilar, Paul Schissler and Jack Cummins were in attendance and saw a promising future for the Blue Demons on the soccer field.

“We [went] down early but we rebounded quick,” Rawlings said. “It was nice to give [the alumni] a good game.”

The Blue Demons visit 3-3-0 Loyola on Wednesday and hope to grab some valuable points in the midway part of the season before a busy October schedule, chock full of important Big East games.