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Ark. Tech lines up with 10 defenders to honor teammate, scores TD (Video)

Arkansas Tech coach Raymond Monica said the idea of scoring a touchdown on his team's first defensive play Thursday night "subtly" crossed his mind, but knew the odds of it happening were quite low.

The Wonder Boys lined up with 10 defenders on the first play against Southern Nazarene in tribute to Zemaric Holt, a defensive lineman who drowned in July.

Southern Nazarene countered Arkansas Tech's shorthanded alignment with a jet sweep that had a pitch back to a receiver coming across the field. The pitch went awry and the ball fluttered towards Southern Nazarene's end zone.

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That moment, Monica said, was in slow motion. So it must have felt like forever as the ball rolled into the end zone and ATU's Nick Akins picked it up for a touchdown.

It was a crazy moment of happenstance. Or, if you believe in a higher power, perhaps a bit of divine intervention.

"The kids were talking about Zemaric on that play," Monica told Yahoo Sports Friday afternoon, "… When it was going on, the whole bench knew the importance of this play."

Monica said the significance of the play left a tear in his eye. He decided not long after Holt's death that the team would go to 10 men for the first play of the game as a tribute. Holt, 21, drowned July 19 while swimming with teammates at the LongPool recreation area. Monica said approximately 10 players were swimming that afternoon at LongPool, which a little more than a half-hour away from the Arkansas Tech campus in Russellville.

"It was an awful scene," Monica said. "One person saw him go down and [Holt] could swim. We don’t understand what happened. We don’t understand it. It wasn’t that far of a swim and just tragic. And then they couldn’t find him for 10 minutes, and where it’s located, it took the ambulance probably 30-40 minutes to get there. They finally got him out and you’ve got all these kids trying to save his life ... It will be on those kids' minds for the rest of their lives."

A LongPool volunteer told KATV in July that the area where Holt drowned in was 25-30 feet deep. His funeral was held in Florida. Holt was a native of Quincy.

"We went down to the funeral with the kids that were here [in Russellville] and wanted to go; and we wound up getting new jerseys and everything this year and we wore the white ones," Monica said. "And coming out on the field, before the first play, one of the kids said ‘The last time we were in these jerseys we were all crying.’"

Arkansas Tech, a Division II school, beat Southern Nazarene 62-14.

The play where Akins scored won't be the only time the team lines up with 10 defenders as a tribute to Holt. Thursday night's game was at Southern Nazarene in Bethany, Oklahoma. Monica not only wanted to start the season honoring him, but he wants to do it on the first defensive play at home against Oklahoma Baptist on September 12. How fun would it be if Arkansas Tech scored a touchdown on the first defensive play again?

"It was a deal where I felt like we needed to do it and whatever happened, happened," Monica said. "Even if it was a touchdown. Even if it was at the one-yard-line. Whatever happened was going to happen. I just thought it was a bigger deal than football."

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(Thanks to @RedditCFB for the heads up to the video)

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!