Dark clouds, steady rain, injuries and barely enough players to field the team didn't dampen the spirits of the Gulf Coast Herricanes in their second game of regular season play against the Blaze Saturday night in New Orleans.

The Herricane players who showed up in New Orleans were the ones who were on fire, and not the Blaze.

The Herricanes defensive line showed real grit, managing to clearly frustrate the Blaze offense by stopping them at the line of scrimmage time and again.

With the defense stopping the Blaze in their tracks so effectively, the outcome should have been a shutout by the Herricanes. The three Blaze touchdowns were "gifts" following Herricane errors and were obviously not a result of brilliant offensive play by New Orleans.

The Herricanes offense got a chance to share some glory with the defense, scoring in the second quarter, and hanging tough well into the last remaining seconds of the fourth quarter when they scored their second touchdown of the night.

The first game for the Herricanes in the 2008 season will be at Houston at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 26.

For a complete list of all NWFA teams and their upcoming 2008 schedule, visit the league's global website at WomensFootballCentral.com or call (615) 860-4084.

The NWFA recently completed a documentary and anyone interested in receiving a copy should e-mail their request to footballmedia@cs.com.