No matter how easy the likes of Leo Messi and Erling Haaland have made it look, scoring a goal remains the most difficult thing to do in soccer.
Doing it three times in a game? Now that’s a special feat.
The hat trick, as the three-goal game came to be known more than a century ago, is a rare achievement, but not so uncommon as to be an oddity. The hat trick by Bertin Jacquesson for the Hounds last Saturday in a 4-0 win over Miami FC was the sixth scored in the USL Championship this season, and in the Hounds’ 25-year history, it goes down as No. 13 all-time.
On the occasion of Jacquesson’s hat trick, take a look back at all 13 Riverhounds hat tricks and the 13 Hounds wins they sparked:
1. Phil Karn — Aug. 1, 1999 vs. Maryland Mania (5-4 win) at Anne Arundel Community College
2. Phil Karn — July 7, 2000 vs. Hershey Wildcats (3-1 win) at Bethel Park High School
The first two hat tricks in club history both came off the feet of Karn, a former Penn State player and current coach in the Philadelphia Union Academy. Karn’s 26 total goals still rank ninth in club history, and while being the first two for the Hounds remains the most historically significant part of his hat tricks, he can claim to be one of the few players to have netted one against a Bob Lilley-coached team, as the current Hounds’ boss was at the helm of the Wildcats in 2000.
3. David Flavius — July 30, 2000 vs. Tennessee Rhythm (6-1 win) at Bethel Park High School
Despite being Hounds’ all-time top goal scorer with 62, Flavius had only one hat trick with the team, coming less than a month after Karn’s second. The future Hounds Hall of Famer finished with 11 goals that season, but the team faltered down the stretch and missed out on the playoffs.
4. Thiago Martins (four goals) — Sept. 1, 2002 vs. Cincinnati Riverhawks (7-0 win) at Bethel Park High School
This game was a sign of things to come for the A-League the following season, when Martins lit up the league with 22 goals to win MVP and Golden Boot honors. In the 2002 season finale and only his eighth game with the Hounds, Martins scored the fastest hat trick in team history with three goals in the first 14 minutes. He added a 42nd-minute goal to establish a club record — since tied, but never broken — with four goals in a game, doing all the damage before halftime.
5. Said Ali — July 10, 2004 vs. Westchester Flames (6-2 win) at City Park Stadium
The Hounds overmatched many teams in their first year after dropping to the USL Pro Soccer League, and Ali — the 2004 Rookie of the Year and All-League First Teamer — cashed in early and often on a visit to New Rochelle, N.Y. The Hounds trailed, 1-0, before Ali struck in the 42nd, 49th and 64th minutes, sending the team their eighth straight win, part of a club-record 16 consecutive victories.
6. José Angulo — July 25, 2014 vs. Real Salt Lake Reserves (5-2 win) at Rio Tinto Stadium
A decade had passed since the last Hounds hat trick, and the 2013 USL Pro MVP got his in perhaps the strangest circumstances possible. Playing for a Hounds team under an interim coach (Niko Katic) and against an MLS Reserve League team as part of a short-lived USL/MLS scheduling agreement, Angulo netted his first-half goals on three penalty kicks — also a Hounds record — over a 39-minute span.
7. Kevin Kerr — March 28, 2015 vs. Harrisburg City Islanders (5-2 win) at Highmark Stadium
8. Rob Vincent — Aug. 1, 2015 vs. Wilmington Hammerheads (3-0 win) at Highmark Stadium
The first two hat tricks at Highmark Stadium and one of only two pairs to come in the same season (2000 being the other) came from players whose legacies are connected, particularly through the 2015 season that also saw both score in the “Miracle on the Mon.” Vincent, coincidentally, scored twice himself and assisted two goals of Kerr’s season-opening hat trick, while Kerr returned the favor with an assist in the Wilmington win.
9. Neco Brett — April 7, 2018 vs. Toronto FC II (4-0 win) at Highmark Stadium
10. Neco Brett (four goals) — Oct. 26, 2019 vs. Birmingham Legion FC (7-0 win) at Highmark Stadium
Brett, the former Robert Morris University star, scored 34 goals in two years with the Hounds, and the first and last of those came in his two hat tricks. The first ushered in the first win of the Lilley era in Pittsburgh, as the Hounds scored four in the second half to win a game that was moved to Highmark because of Toronto’s BMO Field being rendered unplayable by rain. The second, however, carried significantly more impact as the team’s only playoff hat trick. The Legion were absolutely swept away by the Hounds in driving rain as Brett recorded the second four-goal game in team history, the Hounds recorded the most lopsided postseason win in USL Championship history, and Highmark Stadium saw its first-ever Hounds playoff win.
11. Russell Cicerone — Aug. 22, 2021 vs. Atlanta United 2 (4-1 win) at Highmark Stadium
Cicerone ruined a pair of homecomings with his three-goal night, part of a breakout 2021 season. While fans were eager to see the return of Pittsburgh native Robbie Mertz, who left for Atlanta in the offseason, it was Cicerone who stole the show with three goals, including a second strike where he left Atlanta’s Bryce Washington, a former Pitt defender, in the dust. Cicerone’s only disappointment on the night? It could have been a four-goal game if not for an early penalty save by Atlanta’s Rocco Rios Novo.
12. Albert Dikwa — March 18, 2023 vs. Memphis 901 FC (3-1 win) at AutoZone Park
In the second game of the 2023 season, Dikwa showed the form that would win him Most Outstanding Player and the Golden Boot at year’s end. The No. 2 goalscorer in team history with 37, Dikwa’s lone hat trick was the first to come on the road in nine years and — for what it’s worth — the only one to come on a converted baseball field.
13. Bertin Jacquesson — Oct. 5, 2024 vs. Miami FC (4-0 win) at Pitbull Stadium
By games played, only Brett’s first hat trick — in his third game as a Hound — came faster than Jacquesson’s in his fourth match. It’s hard to say what the historical significance of the night will end up being, but by keeping the Hounds within two points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, it’s possible the French forward’s big night could be looked back as an inflection point in a last push for the postseason.
