A young Crusaders golf team earned a tremendous road victory in their young season as they beat St. Joe's, 200 strokes to 205, with a freshman leading the way.

Evan Mitskovski '26 of Orchard Park earned medalist honors Monday with a 39 at Sheridan Park in the Town of Tonawanda.

Only three of the 15 Crusaders on the team are seniors: Casey LaForce '23 of East Aurora, Eli Noble '23 of Williamsville and Mason Sherk '23 of East Aurora.

The team includes four freshman – Elliot DeRose '26 of Buffalo, Halim Habib '26 of Amherst and Connor Jackson '26 of Williamsville are the others – along with four sophomores: Sam Atkinson '25 of Orchard Park, Austin Carney '25 of Amherst, Patrick Cullinan '25 of Orchard Park and Nathaniel Pantano '25 of East Amherst.

The team also has five juniors: Cameron Culligan '24 of Clarence, Austin McMullen '24 of Amherst, McNamara Quinn '24 of Glenwood, Ryan Seereiter '24 of Orchard Park and Brayden Sheehan '24 of Orchard Park.

The Crusaders added a similarly hardfought league road win on Tuesday with another five-stroke victory and another top performance by a freshman. This time Jackson had the low round for Canisius with a 37 in a 195-200 victory over St. Francis at Wanakah Country Club.

Canisius is now 2-1 heading into their first home match on Wednesday. The Crusaders will host St. Francis at Crag Burn in East Aurora.

The season continues through the All-Catholic Team Championships on Sept. 30 at Springville Country Club and the All-Catholic Individual Championships on Oct. 3.