Tardy comes through right on time against Bruins

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Dwight Tardy wanted to go to UCLA. A sturdy but relatively unaccomplished sophomore running back for Washington State, Tardy said he went to every Bruins home game when he was a senior at Santa Fe Springs St. Paul High.

“When they didn’t offer me a scholarship,” Tardy said Saturday, “I felt like I’d been passed up by my own people. That hurt. I wanted to prove something against UCLA.”

He did just that. After averaging 66 yards and about 15 carries a game this season, Tardy carried the ball 37 times for a career-high 214 yards as Washington State won its first Pacific 10 Conference game of the season, 27-7.

If Tardy had the starring role, senior quarterback Alex Brink was more than a supporting actor.

This was Brink’s third win over the Bruins in four starts and the loss, 44-41 in overtime, was hardly Brink’s fault. On his five-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Gibson in the fourth quarter, Brink moved ahead of former UCLA quarterback Cade McNown for eighth place on the Pac-10’s all-time touchdown throws list with 69.

The linchpin in a confident Washington State offense, Brink picked apart UCLA by knocking off eight-, nine-, 10-yard passes -- nothing dramatic but whenever Washington State needed six or seven yards for a first down, Brink would find a Cougars receiver for just a yard or two more.

After UCLA’s Kahlil Bell scored on a 50-yard run on the second play of the game, an unrattled Brink looked to Tardy, hitting his tailback for a nine-yard gain to ignite a 10-play, 61-yard scoring drive that was finished when Tardy gained four yards, then three, then scored from a yard out.

“A big deal has been made that we can’t run the ball,” Cougars offensive line coach George Yarno said. “A lot has been said we can’t do this, we can’t do that. But I thought we could run the ball even though they led the nation in rushing defense.”

Not quite led the nation, but UCLA had been holding opponents to averages of 2.5 yards a carry and 79.6 rushing yards a game, eighth-best in the country. There was no reason to think the Cougars, who ranked 100th in the nation in rushing yards at 108.6 a game, would pound out 274 on the ground, or 545 in total offense.

Tardy, who is 5-10 and 200 pounds, said it has been difficult to listen to criticism of the Cougars’ running ability and he hinted at frustration about not carrying the ball more. “I didn’t know for sure how much I’d get the ball today,” he said. “I hadn’t been getting the ball too much. It hurt my pride a little. I was thinking, am I good enough? Should I really be here? I was kind of down and out.”

Washington State’s final touchdown, a 51-yard run by Tardy that came with 42 seconds left in the game and UCLA already resigned to defeat, was a moment of emotional release for him. While Coach Bill Doba said he had wanted his running back to take a knee before he hit the end zone, both Tardy and Brink were happy for the score.

“At first I was thinking I just needed to hold the rock, keep the ball,” Tardy said. “Then the line gave me room running down the sideline and there was just one guy to beat. I just kept saying, ‘Don’t get tackled by one guy.’ ”

Said Brink: “I was hoping Dwight was going to get that last cut and get in the end zone, even though Coach Doba said he should have fallen down.

“I’m glad he didn’t.”

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diane.pucin@latimes.com