MANHATTAN — The nationally-televised Big 12 Conference showdown between No. 7 Nebraska and Kansas State quickly turned the clash of unbeaten teams into a mismatch.
The difference was Cornhuskers quarterback Taylor Martinez.
A freshman from Corona, Calif., Martinez etched his name into the storied Nebraska record books with the top single-game rushing output by a Huskers quarterback — ever.
Better than Tommie Frazier. Better than Turner Gill. Better than Eric Crouch.
Even better than the previous NU mark of 234 yards, set by Jammal Lord against Texas in 2002.
Martinez rushed for 241 yards in 15 carries and scored four touchdowns — covering 14, 35, 80 and 41 yards — in leading the Cornhuskers to a 48-13 victory over the Wildcats Thursday night on ESPN at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
“He made some mistakes,” NU head coach Bo Pelini said, “but he did a lot of good things, obviously. He ran for a lot of yards and he’s an explosive player and he creates problems for defenses.”
After falling behind 17-3 at halftime, Kansas State (4-1) bottomed out in the second half as it had no answer for Martinez.
Martinez also completed a modest 5 of 7 passes for 128 yards  in Nebraska’s big-play offense, which had seven of its eight scores go for 35 yards or more — three of which covered 68 yards or more
Nebraska mounted an eight-play, 87-yard drive, capped by Martinez’s 35-yard touchdown bolt with 3:54 left in the second quarter, building the Cornhuskers’ lead to 14-3.
On the scoring run, Kansas State’s defenders initially bit on Martinez’s fake handoff to No. 22, which enabled Martinez to cut up inside and race untouched to the end zone.
Kansas State got its first points on a 46-yard field goal by McCook, Neb., native Josh Cherry with 8:47 remaining in the second quarter, narrowing Nebraska’s lead to 7-3.
Cherry also had a career-best 48-yard field goal against his home state.  Indeed, it was all Nebraska.
Kansas State running back Daniel Thomas, the nation’s fourth-leading rusher and the Big 12 leader with a 157 yards-per-game average, was limited to 63 yards in 22 carries.
“He’s a heckuva football player,” Pelini said of Thomas. “He’s probably is as good of a running back there is in the United States, so obviously he was a guy we focused on trying to limit.”
Thomas was stopped twice on third-and-short for no gain during the game, the second time on third-and-3 at the 29, and Cherry converted his first field goal to make it 7-3. A third-and-5 reception for Wichita native Chris Harper, making his first start for the Wildcats, as he gained 11 yards to move the yard markers to the NU 36.
Nebraska methodically drove downfield for a 7-0 lead with 6:22 left in the opening quarter after stopping the Wildcats on fourth-and-2 inside Cornhuskers territory.
Martinez ran liberally during the 8-play, 76-yard scoring drive, which used 3:28 of clock and was capped by his 14-yard TD scamper on a misdirection play up the middle.
Snyder’s early gamble didn’t pay off. Faced with fourth-and-2 at the Nebraska 25 on the opening possession of the game, KSU quarterback Carson Coffman was stopped short of the first-down marker at the 24 as the Huskers took over on downs.
Kansas State surprised the Huskers on the first two plays from scrimmage, throwing to Thomas out of the backfield for 13 and 4 yards. The Wildcats looked impressive, with Thomas gaining 20 carries on six carries, although his final rush during the drive went for no gain on third-and-2 at the 25.
On the next play, following timeouts by both the Wildcats and the Huskers, Coffman was stopped short on his keeper.
After that, KSU never got in sync.