A goal early in each half helped Crusaders get past Dungannon Swifts at Seaview.
Finley Thorndike edged Declan Caddell's side in front as early as the fifth minute after he showed his strength to get to the ball ahead of Gael Bigirimana before embarking on a run forward to exchange passes with Elliot Dunlop and then fire past Declan Dunne.
The Swifts came close to levelling around the half-hour mark when Adam Glenny beat keeper Musa Dibaga only to see the ball come back off an upright.
But the Crues doubled their advantage four minutes into the second half through Fraser Bryden, the league's leading scorer, who got on the end of a long ball and fire across Dunne into the net.
Dungannon kept pushing to find a way back into the game, although their best effort of the second half arrived in the closing moments when James Knowles free-kick from the edge of the area was well kept out by the Crues keeper.
Crusaders: Musa Dibaga, Hamilton, Brooks, Thorndike, Dunlop, O'Rourke, Williamson, Bryden, McCart, Anderson, Barr subs Tuffey, Jewitt-White, Nixon, Clarke, Donnelly, Miskimmin, Beattie