Hoffman headed home youngster Mitch Cooper’s corner in the 53rd minute to give the Jets a moral boosting win ahead of the A-League season, which begins on 8 October.
Central Coast enjoyed the better of the play in the first-half, with recruit Roy O'Donovan striking the post after an early one-on-one opportunity.
Newcastle's goalkeeper Mark Birighitti then came up with two spectacular saves during the opening stanza, as Fabio Ferreira, along with O'Donovan, continued to probe for Central Coast.
But Scott Miller’s side produced a more polished performance in the second-half as Cooper and Enver Alivodic also came close to adding to the Jets' lead after Hoffman's opener.
While admitting the Mariners had the better of play during the opening-half, Newcastle coach Scott Miller said he was impressed with his side's performance in the Central West of New South Wales.
"Compliments to the players for their performances today. Definitely Central Coast had the better of the chances in the first-half, and we lacked a little bit of confidence and belief in possession," Miller said.
"But I asked for a reaction at half-time and got it. Our ambition was to get into the game by settling as a team and relying on our structure and organisation.
"I am very happy that we’ve kept another clean sheet, and that we managed to see out the game once we took the lead."
Meanwhile, Central Coast coach Tony Walmsley agreed his side was dominant in the first-half and said his players enjoyed being in Orange.
"The first half we were dominant, hit the post, created numerous opportunities to get in behind them and just couldn’t score. With two weeks out, not bad but there’s work to do," Walmsley said.
"We came here to be inventive and score goals, we couldn’t really get going but you could see the intent was there and Newcastle did what they came here to do which was grind out a result and they ground out a 1-0 result, scored off a set piece so good luck to them.
"We would definitely come back to Orange, I’m sure there’s more opportunities down the track for matches in the Central West and we’re really grateful to Orange City Council for having us."
