Their story began on the sun-scorched turf surface at St. Bonaventure’s Marra Athletics Complex.

Sullivan O’Dell-Ryan wasn’t close with Malachi Charleston, but the two had known each other since they were little. Then a ninth- and eighth-grader, respectively, each was only beginning to bud athletically.

But they saw the potential in one another as football players.

And so, they began working out together at Bona, putting themselves through various drills about twice a week — pushing each other — while laying the foundation for a friendship that would take them on a football odyssey.

After his sophomore year at Allegany-Limestone, O’Dell-Ryan began training with former UB quarterback and Timon-St. Jude coach Joe Licata, whom he had previously met by attending his summer camps. Licata told the young wide receiver that he was good enough to play at Timon and asked if he’d consider transferring.

Here was an opportunity to play in one of the top leagues in Western New York, the Monsignor Martin Association, gain some exposure and face some of the best competition in the region.

“Sulli” and his family were sold.

And he brought his buddy Charleston, an Olean High freshman, with him.

“From that age, we set a goal,” O’Dell-Ryan said. “We need to (take advantage). That’s what we want to do — play, get scholarships, get offers. We’re not out here just for fun. We want to make a difference. We want to get scholarships so we can go off and play college football.”

THEIR STORY continued in a shared home in Buffalo.

In the summer of 2018, the pair moved in with a host family, where they’d live together for the next two years. They made new friends, met new teammates. Without a car, they’d sometimes have to walk to practice.

“It was just a completely new experience,” Charleston said.

O’Dell-Ryan was already “good friends” with Timon quarterback Mitchell Theal, who’d go on to play at renowned Milford Academy in New Berlin. He was enticed by the idea of playing in Licata’s pass-happy offense.

“I’m a wide receiver,” he said. “That’s one of the most fun things to do as a wide receiver, is to catch deep balls. What’s the point of playing receiver on a team that runs 90 percent of the time? There’s no point.”

And with those two factors in place, success quickly followed.

O’Dell-Ryan had 57 receptions as a junior, including 13 in a loss to Cardinal O’Hara, each of which rank No. 2 (for a season and single game) in MMA history, according to the league’s website. He and Theal finished the year as the second-best passing tandem in the state.

That November, Sulli was named to the All-Catholic First Team on offense while Charleston, who’d blossomed into a 6-foot-2, 200-pound defensive end, earned the same honor on defense.

“On that (MMA records) list is like (former Ole Miss star) Chad Kelly and a bunch of NFL players,” noted O’Dell-Ryan, who’d racked up 624 receiving yards and four touchdowns, “so it was pretty cool to be mentioned on a list like that.”

LAST SEASON, their story diverged slightly, with each taking a different path.

While O’Dell-Ryan returned to Timon, Charleston, who’d been slowed by a pulled hamstring in 2018 and was looking for a different challenge, opted to transfer to Catholic powerhouse Canisius.

Still, they remained tight, and for each, optimism abounded.

O’Dell-Ryan was ranked No. 6 on MaxPrep.com’s preseason list of the top receivers in the state and rated among the top 15 players in Buffalo, per King to King Training. Charleston was poised to be a difference-maker at Canisius.

Around the same time, however, tragedy struck.

In July 2019, their close friend and Timon teammate Paul Humphrey was shot and killed on the first block of Briscoe Avenue near Walden Avenue in Buffalo. He was only 17.

“We sat with him at lunch every day,” Charleston said. “He was our really good friend and it was really hard to deal with that at the time. We didn’t really expect it to be real … and then we found out that he actually passed away.”

With each player wearing Humphrey’s No. 2 on his helmet, including the 5-foot-10, 170-pound O’Dell-Ryan, Timon dedicated the season to its fallen brother. “That was just an extra push for us,” Sulli said. “We really wanted to perform for our friend. He was a dude we lined up with every game.”

FROM THE outset, the former A-L student did just that.

In the Tigers’ season-opener against Iroquois, on just the third play from scrimmage, O’Dell-Ryan caught a 55-yard touchdown pass which ended with him holding two fingers up for Humphrey.

“That was pretty special,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘Is this what’s happening right now, on the third play? Is this how this season’s going to start? It was crazy.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a sign of things to come … at least for O’Dell-Ryan individually.

The senior wideout was limited to only four games due to various injuries, cutting short a final high school campaign in which Timon won both the MMA ‘B’ Division league and playoff championship. It hurt his recruitment, he acknowledged, as talks with the two Division I schools he’d been in touch with, Buffalo and Villanova, cooled.

But it allowed him to keep a closer eye on his friend, the one who’d agreed to take a leap of faith with him, to leave the Big 30 area for Buffalo, over a year earlier.

Charleston had a standout junior campaign, totaling 63 tackles, including 21 for lost yardage, while earning his second-straight All-Catholic First Team citation. He helped Canisius to both the ‘A’ Division title and New York State Catholic School championship, the latter of which came in dramatic fashion, with the Crusaders connecting on a miracle 2-point conversion with no time remaining to top Cardinal Hayes, 25-24.

Two years later, their decisions to depart Allegany and Olean were the right ones, they said.

“I told my friends at the time, and they were all supportive of it,” Charleston said. “They said, ‘Do what you want, we’re here to support you 100 percent.’ My mom was all for it too. You’ll always have a couple people saying you can’t do it, but I didn’t let it get to me.

“I don’t think I’m better than anyone else. I don’t care what anyone says about me — you can’t let that get to you.”

THEIR COMMITMENT has also pushed the duo that much closer to achieving its ultimate goal.

O’Dell-Ryan was offered by Division II Mercyhurst, but declined that opportunity to try and aim higher. Instead, he’s committed to playing at West Coast juco power East Los Angeles, with the hopes that it will result in a Division I scholarship. Charleston, meanwhile, has been offered by Division I Long Island, of the Northeast Conference, and has been “talking to a few other D-I schools.”

“I’m trying to get my college paid for, so even if it’s D-II, I won’t be disappointed,” Sulli said. “I’m (more) interested in enjoying my college football experience and making an impact on the team I end up on.”

No matter where they land, the two have already stopped to appreciate how far they’ve come.

“As far as we go, we’re not naturally born football players,” O’Dell-Ryan said. “All the skills we have, we had to really work for because when (Malachi) started, he was like this little fat dude, he wasn’t anything special. And I was like a hundred-and-something pounds. We really weren’t that good.

“The progress that we made in the last two years is awesome. I’m proud of him and myself for accomplishing these things.”