BERKELEY, Calif. — As he held court with reporters afterward, Bishop Sankey rubbed various parts of his body.

"I'm a little sore," he said. "Probably everywhere, but nothing too bad. Nothing that a few days of treatment can't take care of."

And he was hardly complaining after setting career highs with 29 carries for 189 yards in leading the Huskies to a 21-13 win over California on Friday night.

It wasn't a perfect night for Sankey — he fumbled twice in the third quarter, losing one.

But for most of the night he was one of the two keys to the UW offense, along with the receiving of tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins, rushing for 124 yards in the first half and then scoring the clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard run.

"Their back did a good job spinning out of tackles and getting extra yards," said Cal coach Jeff Tedford.

Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said the plan was to continue the running game success of the past few weeks, especially early — Sankey had 95 yards on 13 carries in the first quarter, including a 4-yard touchdown run.

Sarkisian was most impressed at the way Sankey recovered from the fumbles.

"After having the first half he had, then fumbling a couple times, then to come back down in stretch and put the game away was pretty cool," said Sarkisian of Sankey, who ran four straight times for 28 yards on UW's final touchdown drive.

Quarterback Keith Price said that as the game wound down and UW took its final snaps, he turned to Sankey and told him "I was proud of him. He's been running hard this season and our running game is pretty good and he's just been running hard. Even after he fumbled he kept bouncing back."

Sankey has 855 with three games left, a chance to get 1,000 in a season in which he took over as the starter when Jesse Callier was injured in the first game.

"I feel like we've done a great job this year with the guys we've had and able to get the ball rolling," Sankey said.

Huskies hurt by penalties

Washington, which committed 18 penalties in its past two games, was again hurt by flags early on against Cal, with seven penalties for 63 yards in the first half.

Maybe the most critical was a personal foul for hands to the face on sophomore nose tackle Danny Shelton on a third-down play that gave the Bears a first down at the UW 14 late in the first half.

Trufant could

be back next week

Sarkisian afterward called it a "physical game" that took its toll on some UW players.

But while a few players left with various ailments it appeared UW escaped any serious injuries.

The most significant of the departures was cornerback Desmond Trufant, who left in the first half with a hamstring injury.

Sarkisian said later the injury was not serious.

"It doesn't look like it," Sarkisian said. "He went back in the game (after the initial injury) but he just didn't look right again to me and the trainers, so we pulled him back off the field. You know we are going to need him, so hopefully the one extra day by playing on the Friday night can help him get back for next Saturday (against Utah)."

Notes

• Princeton Fuimaono again started at an outside linebacker spot for the Huskies alongside regular starters John Timu and Shaq Thompson. Fuimaono started last week against Oregon State when Travis Feeney was ill. Feeney was the backup Friday.

• Cal lost fumbles on its first two drives of the game, though that's nothing new. The Bears came into the game tied for the lead in the Pac-12 in lost fumbles with 10.

• Nate Fellner, a senior backup linebacker, was among those who were not on the trip. There was no explanation of the reason. He missed the first three games of the season with a broken foot.

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com.

On Twitter @bcondotta