Greenville, S.C. - Saturday proved to be a big day for Furman soccer as former Paladin Clint Dempsey netted a hat trick for Fulham in its 5-2 victory over Newcastle United while Ricardo Clark headed in the game-winner as the United States topped Venezuela, 1-0, in an international friendly.
Dempsey became the first American to ever score a hat trick in the Barclays Premier League as he rallied Fulham from a 1-0 deficit to claim three points on Saturday afternoon at Craven Cottage in London. America's all-time leading scorer in the Premier League, Dempsey netted his second hat trick in just three matches for the Cottagers as he previously bagged three goals in an FA Cup victory over Charlton Athletic just two weeks ago.
Clark, who teamed with Dempsey to lead the Paladins to the NCAA Round of 16 in 2002 and later joined his former college teammate on the United States' 2010 World Cup squad, entered as a second half sub in the U.S. Men's National Team's international friendly in Glendale, Ariz., on Saturday night. Seven minutes into stoppage time, the Jonesboro, Ga., native got onto the end of Jermaine Jones' corner kick and deposited his header into the lower-left corner to break a scoreless deadlock.
Dempsey and Clark are both members of the Furman Athletics Hall of Fame and earned NSCAA All-America honors under the direction of Paladin head coach Doug Allison. Both players went on to star in MLS, Dempsey with the New England Revolution and Clark with the Houston Dynamo, before continuing their careers in Europe.