EMPORIA, Kan. — Northwest Missouri State maintained the long-standing norm: when the Bearcats play Emporia State, competitively the two are on different planets, if not in different universes.

The fifth-ranked Bearcats overcame a slow start in which they surrendered the game’s first touchdown and used their tough defense and several short fields to run away from the Hornets before halftime, eventually coasting to a 45-12 win. The victory was Northwest’s 15th straight against Emporia State, and the 11th time in the past 12 meetings that the Bearcats have won by at least two touchdowns.

LaRon Council ran for 126 yards in 20 carries and a touchdown, leading a Bearcat offense that rang up 514 total yards despite Northwest pulling starters by the end of the third quarter.

“A lot of it was effort because we did not block real well today,” Northwest coach Mel Tjeerdsma said. “Our running game, that was probably our biggest concern. We just weren’t blocking very well in the running game, but our tailback made us look good several times.”

Quarterback Blake Bolles wasn’t throwing the ball sharply early on, and he tossed an early pass right into the hands of Emporia State linebacker Blake Ringwall. But Emporia State couldn’t capitalize on that turnover, and the Bearcat offense produced more than enough firepower to compensate.

Two Council 11-yard runs on the Bearcats’ first drive set Northwest up at the Hornets’ 21, and Bolles dumped off a short pass to Kyle Kilgore, who took it the rest of the way for a touchdown. The extra point erased the Hornets’ brief 6-0 lead.

Todd Adolf’s 38-yard field goal with 8.4 seconds remaining in the first quarter made it 10-6, and two second-quarter TD passes from Bolles — one a two-hand shovel pass to Tyler Shaw, the other a 15-yard throw to a wide-open Brian Shannon — made it 24-6 at half.

“They had a rough week of practice with being real physical and going full-contact on each other,” Bolles said of Emporia State. “So we knew that they were gonna come out and try to be physical, especially early. And we just tried to match that and got off to a little slow start, but all in all, we did pretty good.”

When Emporia State pinned Northwest at its own 3 with a third-quarter punt, the Bearcats responded by marching downfield with ease. Using seven runs from Council for 55 yards, the Bearcats covered 97 yards in just 4:39, finishing with a three-yard jump-ball touchdown pass from Bolles to Jake Soy. After Council’s nine-yard scoring run made it 38-6, Northwest started going to its bench. Jordan Simmons added a 1-yard scoring run early in the fourth.

Council’s 126-yard performance put him over 3,000 yards for his career, making him the fifth back in Northwest history to reach that mark. Soy added six catches for 148 yards. Bolles finished 21-for-36 for 278 yards with four touchdown throws.

“I think the offense is starting to get in rhythm,” Council said. “And the pass is kind of opening up the run, and if we need to run first, we’ll do that. I just think we’re starting to gel, as we usually do every year at about the right time, going into the playoffs.”

Justin Welch, Chad Kilgore and Kyle Sunderman all picked off passes for the Bearcats, who held ESU to 150 total yards through three quarters and 268 for the game.

“If we base up on defense and contain — that was a big thing,” Tjeerdsma said. “... (Sloan El) is tough to contain, and that causes some problems. It’s hard to pass-rush against a guy like that. But once we kept him within the pocket, we were fine.”