VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -  Adam Nycz (East Aurora, N.Y./Iroquois) scored five goals as Virginia Wesleyan stunned Guilford with a 8-2 second quarter blitz and cruised to an 18-9 victory Saturday at Foster Field.

The game represented an goal-scoring breakthrough for the Marlins (5-3, 1-1), who had been peppering opponents with shots all season but had often be unsuccessful in consistently finding the back of the net. This time, however, the Marlins launched 40 shots on two Guilford netminders and came away with their most prolific goal-scoring game of the season. The 18 tallies were five more than they've produced in any other game in 2012.

"We felt if we just keep working hard, kept plugging away, eventually good things would happen," Marlins coach J.P.. Stewart said. "The kids put a lot of effort in and they shot the ball really well."

Nine other Marlins in addition to Nycz contributed to the goal-scoring frenzy. Nick Pappas (Edgewater, Md./South River) and Travis Puhls (Ellicott City, Md./Mount St. Joseph) each scored three times, Ian Shankland (Hempstead,, N.Y./John T. Hoggard) chipped in two goals and Andrew Adamson (Marriottsville, Md./Mount Hebron), Mike Moran (Woolrich, N.J./Kingsway Regional), Mikey Connors (Horseheads, N.Y./Horseheads), Brian Dressler (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty), Chad Kooser (Ferndale, Md./North County) and Joe Papetti (Edgewater, Md./South River) added single tallies for Virginia Wesleyan. Nycz and Pappas each also had two assists as the Marlins notched their first ODAC victory. Guilford fell to 6-4 and 1-2 in the conference.

"Nick Pappas was great down on the attack, and Mikey Connors was a real sparkplug for us, winning faceoff and getting in on goal," Stewart said. "Just a strong effort all around."

After the two teams played to a 2-2 standoff after one quarter, the Marlins broke free with their big second quarter, then cemented the win by scoring the first three goals of the second half. Puhls got things started with a tally a mere seven seconds after the intermission to make it 11-4. Pappas took a pass from Nycz, made a nice move inside the defense and scored to boost the Marlins' advantage to eight. Then Puhls connected again to give Virginia Wesleyan a commanding 13-4 advantage.

For the game, the Marlins outshot the Quakers 40-31.