In the far reaches of his mind, Hudson Catholic head hockey coach Cory Robinson had a good feeling about the prospects of his team for the 1999-2000 season. Despite losing the school’s all-time leading scorer in Pat Verney and a super skater and scorer in Ryan Knapp to graduation, Robinson secretly had a hunch that the Hawks were going to be a solid team. And that’s even after making the quantum leap up to face the stiffer competition in the National A Division of the New Jersey Interscholastic Hockey League. “I was very optimistic,” Robinson said. “I didn’t want to say anything publicly, but I believed that if some of our younger players developed, we could do well. Of course, when you lose the players that we did to graduation, you have to be concerned. But I felt that we had a very strong junior class that gained a lot of experience as sophomores last year.” Although Robinson was silently confident, there’s no way he could have ever imagined what has transpired. Because his Hawks haven’t only handled the move up in competition, they’ve thrived. In the young season, the Hawks are currently 6-0-1. They have already defeated two-time defending overall state champion Seton Hall Prep, 3-2, and last week, fought No. 1-ranked Brick Township to a 4-4 deadlock. And this weekend, the soaring Hawks will play the role as host in the second annual Mayor’s Cup of Secaucus Tournament at the Secaucus Skating Rink. Seven teams from all over the map, including New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Montreal, will come to Secaucus’ Bushmiller Park rink to face Hudson’s Hawks. The Mayor’s Cup Championship game is slated for 12:30 p.m. Sunday. Needless to say, Robinson is beyond thrilled with his team’s early success. “I knew we were going to be good,” Robinson said. “But this good? No way. I thought we would be able to hold our own in the new division. Everyone wanted the move up. The last two years, our record has been tremendous, but it was time for us to play the better competition, night after night. Added Robinson: “Although we had a good record, I didn’t think we got the respect we deserved. I thought we still had to sell ourselves to everybody. Now, playing in the National A, it’s a totally different game. You can’t be worried about everyone else, facing the elite every night. You have to be worried about yourself.” Getting the 3-2 victory over Seton Hall Prep on Dec. 4 was a crowning moment for Robinson’s program. A fierce rivalry had ensued between the two schools