Roosevelt High School leaned heavily on the defense to escape its first-round opponent in the City Section Division II football playoffs.

The division’s top-seed had to.

Two late defensive stops enabled the Rough Riders (10-1) to hold off visiting Grant, 14-10 and advance to a quarterfinal game with Fairfax (6-5).

The Lions blanked Bell, 27-0 in their playoff opener.

Because of two lost fumbles that killed potential scoring opportunities, Roosevelt found itself in a tougher than expected opener.

“We ran the ball effectively up and down the field, but those two fumbles in the red zone were huge,” Rough Rider coach Javier Cid said.

They were bailed out by the defense.

“Our defense came up big,” he said. “We bent but didn’t break. Any time they got into the red zone, we stopped them.”

In the fourth quarter, Grant drove to the Rider 10, but two of the next three plays resulted in a minus-13 yards, five on a sack by lineman Ramon Barraza.

Grant had one more possession after taking over at the Rider 30. They managed to move to the Roosevelt 49 before giving the ball up on downs. The Riders then ran out the remaining time.

In the first half, Roosevelt turned away Grant when Armando Perez intercepted a pass in the end zone.

Manny Ayon led the offense by rushing for 143 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries and completing three of five passes for 40 yards and a score.

Junior tailback Jesse Lira carried nine times for 125 yards and caught a scoring pass. Lira has 1,141 yards rushing for the year.

Fairfax scored 13 first-half points, then added 14 more in the third period in its win over Bell (7-4).

Adrian Lopez was 16 of 27 for 116 yards passing for Bell. He also rushed for 43 yards on 10 carries.

No. 5 seeded Franklin (9-1) earned a quarterfinal home game against Hamilton (8-3) with a 57-12 rout of Jefferson in a Division II first-round contest. Hamilton crushed Wilson, 63-20 to advance.

In the Division I playoffs, No. 4 Taft routed Garfield, 44-14. Lucky Radley rushed for 97 yards and a TD and also caught an 82-yard pass from D.J. Morgan, who moved to quarterback after starter Bam Goodall was shaken up, to pace the Toreadors.

Goodall’s 59-yard scoring pass to Donnell Robinson on the game’s first play sent Taft on a first-half surge in which they built a 34-0 lead by halftime. A 45-yard run by Shelton with 19 seconds left in the half capped the scoring in the first two periods.

The USC-bound Morgan carried five times for 68 yards and a TD and Shaquille Shelton carried seven times for 85 yards and a score.

Garfield, which did all of its scoring after the break, finishes the year 5-6.