Donnel Pumphrey was the first player out of the San Diego State locker room postgame where a group of reporters were waiting.

On this unusual Christmas Eve at Aloha Stadium, Pumphrey, the star running back, jogged left, away from the waiting media who didn’t bat an eye.

The star of the 2015 Hawaii Bowl walked out a minute later carrying the paddle given to the team’s most valuable player. Fullback Dakota Gordon, yes a fullback, was left to answer questions after San Diego State completed a masterful 42-7 thumping of Cincinnati to tie the highest margin of victory in Hawaii Bowl history.

“The fact that I won this just blows my mind,” said Gordon, who scored two touchdowns and was a video replay away from a third. “Fullbacks don’t get all of the glory sometimes.”

Rashaad Penny set the tone for the game with a 100-yard kickoff return on the opening play, but Gordon carried the momentum throughout a 60-minute beatdown of the Bearcats.

His pancake blocks that at times had linebackers being helped off the field by trainers opened the way for Pumphrey and the rest of the Aztecs to rush for 207 yards, breaking the 200-mark for the 10th straight game.

Making those plays wasn’t anything new to Gordon. Scoring touchdowns, however, was.

His two TDs matched the two he had scored in his entire two-year career.

One was on a 1-yard plunge, but the other was a 14-yard touchdown reception thrown by Pumphrey, who attempted his first pass all season.

Pumphrey took a pitch from quarterback Christian Chapman and had Gordon in front of him ready to bury someone. Instead, Gordon faked the block and leaked out to the 2-yard line, where he caught the pass from Pumphrey and bowled over safety Tyrell Gilbert to make it 21-0 late in the first half.

“All week (in practice), he’s been dropping the passes,” Pumphrey said. “Today, it worked out. He deserves (the award).”

Gordon had a bit of a different take on those drops.

“There was a bit of a wind problem in practice,” he said.

Gordon, listed as 5 feet 10 and 235 pounds, walked on to the team in the spring of 2014 after spending two years at Fresno City College.

He started eight games as a junior and earned a scholarship for his senior season.

He’s started every game this year and the Aztecs are 16-6 in those 22 starts. Gordon has allowed Pumphrey to rush for at least 100 yards in 15 of those games, which should have been 16, but Pumphrey finished with 99 yards against the Bearcats.

“When you get a (fullback) as good as (Gordon), he does a lot of things and does not get recognized for it,” San Diego State coach Rocky Long said. “When you have a DJ Pumphrey gaining 1,700 and 1,800 yards and another running back, Chase Price, gaining over 1,000 yards, everybody is patting them on the back and everything but they forget about the little guard in the backfield blocking all of those guys to pop those tailbacks.

“I don’t know who votes for (the award), but there’s some really good football people in this town that realize how important a fullback is to success and they rewarded a fullback. There’s a lot of good football knowledge in this town. He’s done that all year long and some people don’t even know his name.”

Don’t count the starting 11 on defense for Cincinnati among that group. They know exactly who No. 46 is now.