Loyola’s Grady Steps Down as Coach

Steve Grady, the football coach for 29 years at Los Angeles Loyola, announced his resignation Wednesday, ending one of the most successful coaching careers in Southern Section history.

Grady, 59, guided the Cubs to two Division I championships, four runner-up spots and 16 league titles while compiling a record of 269-77-6.

Loyola has advanced to the Division I playoff quarterfinals or beyond 19 consecutive seasons. Eighty-four of Grady’s players were honored on All-Southern Section teams, including four as player of the year.

Grady, who will continue to work at Loyola in an administrative capacity, said he needed to “take a break” from coaching. He did not rule out a return as an assistant in 2006. Students throughout the campus gave him a standing ovation when the announcement was made over the public address system.

The school is expected to seek a replacement who has ties to Loyola.

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Eric Sondheimer

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Boys’ Soccer

South Gate and Los Angeles Fremont were longshots to qualify for the City Section final, but both advanced Wednesday with semifinal victories.

South Gate, seeded 10th, advanced to its first City championship with a 1-0 overtime victory at No. 6 Los Angeles Manual Arts. The eighth-seeded Pathfinders (10-4-2) qualified with a 2-1 victory at No. 5 Woodland Hills El Camino Real.

Fremont, which beat top-seeded L.A. Washington in a quarterfinal Friday, will play South Gate (15-5-1) Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at East Los Angeles College.

Rudolfo Andalon trapped a throw-in from Marco Pulido in the opening minute of overtime and scored South Gate’s winning goal from 20 yards. Enrique Plaza made two saves to earn the shutout for the Rams, who also upset second-seeded San Fernando in the quarterfinals Friday.

Manual Arts (18-4-2) will play El Camino Real (19-4-1) in the third-place game Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at East L.A. College.